A gift of more than $1 million to the University of Iowa Foundation from UI graduates Dale E. and Linda R. Baker will benefit students and alumni.

A $250,000 portion of the gift was made to endow the Dr. Ken Magid Child Advocacy Service Scholarship. The scholarship, administered by the University of Iowa Alumni Association, was established in 2005 by Linda Baker to honor her mentor, Kenneth Magid, whose wide-ranging career was a tremendous influence on her own career and service efforts. Funds from the scholarship help UI students cover expenses related to volunteer service opportunities working in orphanages in Romania.

Linda Baker traveled to Romania with the UI Alumni Association’s Iowa Voyagers program in spring 2005 to work for three weeks in an orphanage and was so moved by the experience that she established the scholarship.

The impact of the scholarship gift will be doubled thanks to Golden Pledge: A Presidential Partnership for Student Success—a new program established in October 2012 by UI President Sally Mason and the UI Foundation that matches the payout from new, privately funded endowed scholarships of $100,000 or more through 2017. The effort is designed to significantly increase the number of scholarships for undergraduate students at Iowa, paving the way for important learning opportunities such as the Romanian service experience.

“When I returned from my own experience in Romania, I thought it would be great to be able to send students on the trip as well,” says Linda Baker. When she shared that thought with Diane Baker, who is not related to Dale and Linda Baker, in the UI Alumni Association, the idea to fund the scholarship was born. “It was a true case of two heads being better than one,” says Linda Baker.

In addition, the Bakers have made a $1 million gift to the UI Alumni Association Vision Endowment Fund. The Vision Endowment Fund helps provide stable, long-term financial support to enhance connections between Iowa alumni, friends, and the UI. “Such unrestricted funds give the association the ability to be proactive and flexible in pursuing its mission,” says Vince Nelson, UI Alumni Association president.

“The UIAA, like most alumni associations, has a high degree of volatility in regards to their funding sources,” says Dale Baker. “Creating secure sources of funding is important to satisfying that ongoing need to reach out to different age groups and the need to keep experimenting to see how to keep different people connected to the UI.”

Dale and Linda Baker both graduated from the UI in June of 1968 and were married in July of that year. Dale earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in business administration and accounting, and Linda graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and a secondary education certification. Dale Baker joined the UI Foundation Board of Directors in the fall of 2012, and Linda Baker serves on the UI Alumni Association Board of Directors. The Bakers have been generous supporters of various UI programs and initiatives throughout the years, and are platinum members of the UI Presidents Club.

Despite the decades that have passed since graduation, the Bakers maintain their connection to the UI campus through their philanthropy. They also remain connected to the many friends they met during their time as students, as well as new UI friends they have made since—thanks in part to events facilitated by the UI Alumni Association.

“One of the many things the UI Alumni Association has to offer is also a lot of fun,” says Dale Baker. “We’ve met some fantastic people over the years through events they’ve coordinated.”

The UI acknowledges the UI Foundation as the preferred channel for private contributions that benefit all areas of the university. For more information about the foundation, visit www.uifoundation.org.