UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley announced Friday the second-largest gift to UW-Madison, the Wisconsin Idea Endowment from the estate of Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin. The gift is rivaled only by Sen. Herb Kohl's $25 million gift to help finance the Kohl Center.
The $21.7 million Baldwin gift will perpetuate the Wisconsin Idea, which calls for UW-Madison's resources to serve the people of the state, the country and beyond.
Both Ira Baldwin and his wife, Ineva, were faculty members at UW-Madison. Ira was a professor of bacteriology and dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences; Ineva was an assistant dean of women for the College of Letters and Science. Ineva died last year at the age of 96, while her husband died in 1999 at the age of 103.
According to Wiley, the gift will be invested, with only the interest income being allocated to grants for outreach programs.
Possible programs include partnerships with community service programs for undergraduates and grants for faculty and staff to undertake research on societal issues.
'Both Ira and Ineva believed in intellectual challenge in pursuit of the public good,' Wiley said. 'Their generous legacy gives us the opportunity to continue this idea.'
Ineva received part of her undergraduate education and an MA in botany from UW-Madison. She enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserves during World War II, attaining the rank of lieutenant commander, the highest rank achieved by a female at the time.
Ira came to Madison as a graduate student in 1925 after serving in World War I.
The couple traveled extensively in the 1960s and '70s in South America and the Far East for the U.S. Department of State to help build educational and research facilities.
Some projects aided by donations from the Baldwins in the past include the Arboretum, Allen Gardens, Southeast Asia Center, University Club and the Clinical Cancer Center.
