ISU People

Often working with Iowa citizens, including their peers at the University of Iowa and other institutions, Iowa State University individuals have made substantial contributions to Iowa's state parks. Members of the ISU community played a central role in the establishment and development of the state park system by

• advocating for their existence
• providing leadership in their development
• conducting studies and writing reports before and after their establishment
• developing plans for landscaping and structures within the parks
• other contributions

Iowa State individuals who aided the state park movement include president Raymond A. Pearson, forester G. B. MacDonald, landscape architect John Fitzsimmons, botanist Ada Hayden, Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Charles Curtiss, and the park movement’s central leader, botanist Louis Pammel, among others.