Tag: iowa city iowa

The 2024 Distinguished Education Lecture by Russell Ledet, MD, PhD

Last year, I wanted to present this Distinguished Education Lecture by Dr. Russell Ledet, MD, PhD, given during Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration of Human Rights week. It took a while for my message to the University of Iowa to get through channels, but I want to thank Audra M. King, the Administrative Services Coordinator for the Office of Student Affairs and Curriculum in the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine for her help in getting it into a YouTube format that allows the general public to see and hear Dr. Ledet’s presentation.

I wrote a post in February last year about how impressed I am with Dr. Ledet as a leader. Now you can hear him tell his own inspirational story.

Memorial Day Events 2024 in Iowa City, Iowa

The Memorial Day ceremonies in Iowa City, Iowa this year will be on May 27, 2024. At 8:30 a.m. there will be a ceremony at Park Road Bridge. Then at 9:30 a.m., the second part will be at Oakland Cemetery. At 11:00 a.m. the third part will be at Memory Gardens.

Update on the Mason City, Iowa YWCA Renovation and How That Connects to Pizza

This is an update on a couple of Mason City, Iowa YWCA and YMCA renovation posts I wrote in May of 2022 (May 12 and May 25). I’m also going to compare the information about those with recent news about the building which is home to Pagliai’s Pizza.

Recall that the YMCA in Mason City was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. It was built in 1926. It was also converted into an affordable apartment housing resource. When I was a young man, I used to live in the dormitory. And if you must know, that was in the days of the Pony Express.

And the YWCA in Mason City was built in 1918, well before the YMCA. Yet it is still not on the historic register, which is puzzling. It sat empty for many years before a couple of artists (2 Artists) bought it in 2021. They are trying to renovate the building with some assistance from the city, and their own fund-raising campaign which includes a GoFundMe and other efforts. They plan to use it as a resource for artists, eventually to include studios, apartments, and art shows. The city has received a grant to convert part of the building into apartments.

The State Historical Society of Iowa told me that the YWCA has been deemed eligible twice for nomination (in 1991 and in 2003, which was a year after the YMCA was added to the list). Yet the YWCA has never been nominated. I ended up calling this a mystery in history. It’s true it was neglected for years and renovation is expensive. The nomination process is long and very involved.

A recent, brief local newspaper article indicates that the renovations are still underway, but there is still no mention of trying to get it added to the historic register.

How does that connect to the current news about the building that houses Pagliai’s Pizza? The owner wants to sell the building. However, the building has been there since the 1870s and the Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission has decided along with many others that it belongs on the city’s list of historic landmarks.

The building used to house a dance hall, a grocery store, and a bohemian restaurant. It has been home for Pagliai’s Pizza since 1957. It’s a local favorite; Sena and I have enjoyed pizza there on several occasions.

The owner has misgivings about designating the building a historic landmark as it might hurt its marketability. Nevertheless, the Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission legally decided to recommend it for landmarking. It will be voted on by the Iowa City Planning and Zoning Commission, although it’s not clear exactly when. The owner of the building is not the same person who runs the pizza place—he signed a lease through 2030 and beyond if possible.

My question is if Iowa City can insist on adding a building to the historic register (in a way overriding the owner), why has it never been done for the Mason City YWCA? There is at least as much culturally significant history linked to it as there is with the Iowa City property.

I’m not savvy enough about the intricacies of city planning to figure this one out. So, it remains a mystery in history to me.

Gratitude to Pastor Robert Stone

I came across a couple of items that prompted my renewed gratitude. One of them was an article in Bloomberg on the web, “US Medical Schools Grapple With First Admissions Since End of Affirmative Action” by Richard Abbey, Ilena Peng, and Marie Patino, published on December 14, 2023. It’s about how hard it is for black students to get into and graduate from medical school. Just getting to college is a major hurdle.

The other item is an obituary of one of the most important persons in my life, Pastor Robert Leroy Stone. He authorized scholarships for two years of my undergraduate college education, which were at Huston-Tillotson College (now Huston-Tillotson University, one of the HBCUs) in Austin, Texas. That was back in the 1970s, ancient history now. The issue of Affirmative Action was widely discussed during that time.

As usual, I’m dumbfounded by how often I miss the passing of the critically important people who made my success in life possible. And there is this astonishing connection which followed me even to Iowa City—but of which I was unaware. After he retired, Pastor Stone moved from Mason City to Iowa City in November of 2001. At that time, I had graduated from The University of Iowa College of Medicine, finished my residency in psychiatry in 1996, and was on staff in University of Iowa Dept of Psychiatry. I never knew he was so close. He died in 2002.

Pastor Stone was a Board Member and Chair of the Mason City YMCA, where I lived for a while. He was also a Member of the Board of Chemical Dependency Services of North Iowa as well as the Mental Health Center of North Iowa.

Although I didn’t graduate from Huston-Tillotson College, I was able to transfer credit to Iowa State University. And from there I went to medical school at The University of Iowa.

I’ve read other stories about how hard it is for Black students to get into and finish medical school. My path was indirect and not easy, but Pastor Stone made it possible. And for that, I am grateful.