By ALAN SIMMER ’07 

As with other projects around campus, there’s a list of donors hanging in the remodeled and expanded Ubuntu Center. However, among the recognition for couples, organizations, and individuals who made gifts, one line stands out a bit differently than the rest: “In honor of Mardella DeWall Groskreutz ’55.”

Mardy, as friends and family call her, was the first recorded president of Centennial Hall (now known as Slife Hall). She earned her associate degree from Wartburg in 1952, was the first kindergarten teacher at St. Paul’s Lutheran School in Waverly, and then returned to Wartburg, completing her bachelor’s degree in 1955.

Mardy met her future husband, Donald ’52, while on campus, and they were married shortly after her graduation. She now lives in California near her daughters.

When Janet DeWall Harms ’65 heard about the planned renovations to Vollmer and Centennial halls — which are now known collectively, including Hebron Hall, as the Ubuntu Center — her sister Mardy sprang to mind.

“I knew from the time I was in fifth grade that I would go to Wartburg,” said Janet, and that “probably had something to do with Mardy going to college there.”

Mardy’s 90th birthday was approaching, so Janet and husband Alan thought a donation in Mardy’s honor to the hall she once led would be a great way to celebrate the milestone.

And then they thought: Why keep it to just us?

The Harmses issued an invitation to Mardy’s other relatives to make donations as well, while their $5,000 gift was used as a matching challenge during the fundraising campaign.

Janet and Alan aren’t sure how many family members have donated — “We don’t really know because our family is very quiet about it,” Janet said with a laugh — but they do know of gifts from their daughters, Christine (Sean) Meade ’92 and Elizabeth (Ben) Hagerup, and niece Robin McCrea ’90.

“We really believe in generosity,” said Alan, noting he and Janet have endowed a scholarship in memory of Janet’s parents, Henry and Minnie DeWall.

“Both of our girls got good academic scholarships when they went to college,” said Janet. “That was another reason we felt like we should pay back what people did to help us get them educated.”

Honoring Mardy was a way to do that.

“It just made sense,” Alan said, “and we thought it would be a really nice thing.”