Alumnus Bill Faust bequeaths $1M to MCC

Students at Marshalltown Community College will soon be seeing an extensive renovation to their student center, thanks to the generosity of MCC graduate, William “Bill” Faust. The Dubuque native has donated nearly $1 million to Marshalltown Community College to renovate the MCC Student Union area. It’s the largest single gift to the MCC Foundation to date.
“At MCC we are focused on becoming the top community college in Iowa for ensuring student success and providing a great overall experience,” says Dr. Robin Lilienthal, MCC Provost. “Mr. Faust’s generosity as a result of his own positive memories of the college will truly benefit the student experience at Marshalltown Community College. For a long time we have envisioned a major renovation of our student union and related spaces to create the “heart” of our college where students carry the learning they engage in seamlessly between formal instruction and co-curricular engagement. By creating campus spaces that promote great conversation, leadership opportunities, and a chance to build relationships, research shows that opportunities for success increase exponentially.”
Bill Faust
Bill was born on February 20, 1950, in Dubuque, Iowa. He graduated from Dubuque Senior High, then “followed a friend” (in his words) to Marshalltown Community College. After graduating from MCC in 1971, he completed a bachelor’s degree in marketing at the University of Northern Iowa. He then went to work for Deere & Company World Headquarters in Moline, IL, in progressively responsible positions before retiring as an analyst in the forecasting of equipment sales in 2004. He enjoyed trout fishing, biking, working out and working at home on his projects. Bill passed away last year on June 23, 2013, at his home in Moline.
Carol Geil, Executive Director of the Marshalltown Community College Foundation recalls speaking to Mr. Faust about his wishes before he died. “Bill told me that when he began working on his financial planning after retirement, he wanted to leave money from his estate to organizations that had ‘truly meant something’ in his life. As he reminisced, he kept coming back to his time at MCC. He said he was profoundly impacted as a student by the faculty here, particularly Don Maze and John McCurdy, and that some of the best memories of his life revolved around being with friends at the ‘red brick monstrosity’ of the uptown campus during his time here.”
Bill wanted his legacy gift to “make a big splash” and to be used on a “bricks and mortar” project such as building something new or, in this case, a renovation. The renovation of the student union seemed like a fantastic match for his fond memories of time spent at MCC and creating a similar location to create those memories for students in the future. He became very excited about the prospect of giving that gift to all MCC students with his money.
“Because we want to do this right, we will spend the better part of a year engaging students and stakeholders and planning for the project,” says Lilienthal. “A construction timeline, at this point, is anticipated for summer 2016.”