Wartburg College will celebrate the naming of Otto Science Hall at a public ceremony Thursday, Oct. 16, at 4 p.m., in the Science Center Courtyard.

The Wartburg College Board of Regents approved the naming of the north and east wings of the Science Center after Dr. Ralph E. Otto, a 1963 graduate, and his wife, Diane. Otto was a cardiothoracic surgeon in the Chicago area and served on the Wartburg College Board of Regents from 1992 until his death in 2008.

“Ralph and Diane were champions for academic excellence throughout the college, particularly in the disciplines of chemistry and biology,” said President Darrel Colson. “Their endowed gifts help maximize teaching and learning and facilitate life-changing mentoring relationships between professors and students.”

The Ottos generously supported Wartburg throughout their lives. In 1983, they created an endowed scholarship named for Dr. A.W. Swensen, the Wartburg chemistry professor he credited for much of his academic and professional success. Signage commemorating Otto Science Hall will be displayed next to a portrait of Swensen. In 1995, Otto established the Ralph E. Otto Endowed Professorship in Chemistry.

“The Otto Endowed Professorship has afforded me the support necessary to establish a productive laboratory; a place where Wartburg students produce original research that often is presented at scientific conferences across the country and published in well-respected cancer and biochemistry journals,” said Shawn Ellerbroek, associate professor of chemistry/biochemistry and holder of the Ralph E. Otto Endowed Professorship in Chemistry.

Otto and Diane Davis were married in 1966. Diane earned a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, in 1965. Otto completed a medical degree at Northwestern in 1967 and trained as a cardiac surgeon. They lived in Germany from 1974 to 1977, where he served in the U.S. Air Force as chief of cardiothoracic surgery for the Western European Theater. After returning to the Chicago area, they raised three sons, and Diane earned a law degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1983.

“My father believed Wartburg was the reason he was so successful,” said Bill Otto. “He felt he never would have excelled had it not been for his experience at Wartburg and his relationship with Dr. Swensen.”

Diane died in December 2007. Otto, an avid pilot, died in a plane crash in August 2008.

Becker Science Hall, the south and west wings of the Science Center, is named in honor of the late Dr. Conrad H. Becker, the college's 12th president.