BY | LAURA BILLINGS-COLEMAN PHOTOS BY | GREG HELGESON

Less than 150 miles lie between Macalester College and the southern Minnesota farm where Mark
Vander Ploeg ’74 grew up—though seen from the distance of years, the mileage can seem much greater.

The son of Dutch immigrants running a busy dairy farm outside Blue Earth, Vander Ploeg attended
a rural school that housed all 13 grades in a single building. State schools were the usual destination for the very few of his classmates who did go on to college, so when his school librarian suggested Macalester, Vander Ploeg didn’t think it was possible.

“There were a few problems—it was private, it was expensive,” says Vander Ploeg, who knew
he couldn’t cover his tuition with the money he’d earned at a canning factory and doing odds jobs on
neighboring farms. “The whole idea was just foreign to everybody.”

His first visit to campus came in the spring of 1970, in the days following the shootings at Kent
State that caused campuses nationwide to erupt in chaos. Macalester was no exception—classes were cancelled, and makeshift military headstones were set out in front of Old Main to protest the U.S. invasion of Cambodia.

“It was a highly unusual time for a visit—it wasn’t typical Macalester,” recalls Paul Aslanian, a
professor emeritus of economics, then a young assistant professor, who was introduced to Vander
Ploeg during his campus tour. Aslanian invited “this little skinny, blonde kid” into his office, and the two of them spent most of the afternoon talking, a conversation that made more of an impression on the prospective freshman than the surrounding chaos.

“I was determined to come to Macalester after that,” Vander Ploeg says.

It wasn’t just his meeting with a welcoming professor that made up his mind. Along with the acceptance letter he received from the Admissions Office that spring came a second letter informing him that he’d been selected to receive the Charles and Ellora Alliss Educational Foundation scholarship, an endowment earmarked for academically and financially deserving students from Minnesota.

“That scholarship made all the difference in the world,” says Vander Ploeg, who went on to graduate
with majors in geography and economics. After graduate school at the University of Chicago, he began a long and successful career in investment banking, as well as 18 years of service to Macalester as a trustee, including six as board chair. When he stepped down from the board, he and his wife, Jeanne, marked the occasion by creating the Vander Ploeg Family Scholarship,
an endowment modeled on the scholarship he had received more than 30 years earlier.

“I wanted in some way to acknowledge and pay back what the Alliss family did for me by establishing a similar scholarship,” Vander Ploeg says about the fund, which gives preference to students from rural Minnesota or rural Wisconsin, Jeanne’s home state. “I don’t want anyone who wants to go to Macalester to choose not to because they don’t have the resources or the encouragement. I know that scholarship shaped the course of my life.”

"I DON'T WANT ANYONE WHO WANTS TO GO TO MACALESTER TO CHOOSE NOT TO BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE THE RESOURCES OR THE ENCOURAGEMENT. I KNOW THAT SCHOLARSHIP SHAPED THE COURSE OF MY LIFE."
—MARK VANDER PLOEG '74

Many talented Minnesota students have used Macalester as a springboard between the small
towns where they were raised, and the wider world where they became well known in their fields. Former vice president Walter Mondale ’50, for instance, was born in Ceylon, Minnesota, and attended
public schools in Heron Lake and Elmore, Minnesota, before arriving at Macalester in the late 1940s. Novelist Tim O’Brien ’68 was born in Austin and raised in Worthington, rural towns linked by interstate 90 in southern Minnesota, which have also figured in his fiction. The late artist Duane
Hanson ’46, known for his bronze life-casts, was born in Alexandria, Minnesota, known
for its 28-foot Viking statue.

For some, the path to Macalester was made smoother by a long-standing series of scholarship funds specifically meant for students from small-town Minnesota. For almost half a century, deserving
students from International Falls have been eligible for the Mando Endowed Scholarship,
established by the forerunner of the Boise Cascade company. For more than 40 years, students from the Iron Range have come to Mac with the help of the Winton Excellence Endowed Scholarship. Members of the class of 1936 celebrated their 50th reunion by creating an endowed scholarship intended for Minnesota students lacking the financial means to attend a private college.

Now, as another generation comes of age, and acquires the means to give back to their alma mater,
several new scholarships have been established to carry this tradition into the next century—among
them, the Vander Ploeg Family Scholarship, the Helen and Wayne Hultquist Endowed Scholarship,
the Georgia Entenza Endowed Scholarship, and the Jeanne A. and Gerald A. Meigs Endowed Scholarship. All are intended for students from Minnesota, especially those who hail from outside the sevencounty metropolitan area.

During Macalester’s first 70 years, Minnesotans made up the majority of enrollment, particularly
the so-called Presbyterian “PKs”—preachers’ kids who were rumored to receive a 10 percent discount on tuition. In the years after World War II, and particularly under the leadership of President Charles Turck, the college’s enrollment became more diverse, welcoming students from across the country and around the world. Forty years ago, 58 percent of the enrolled students came from Minnesota, 34 percent from within the Twin Cities. Last year, Minnesotans made up just 16 percent of enrolled students. Though students who come from within the state of Minnesota have been balanced by students hailing from overseas (who made up 14 percent of enrollment in 2007), New England and mid-Atlantic states (19 percent), and other parts of the Midwest (26 percent), they continue to bring something special to campus—even if they don’t have to travel as far to get here.

“Certainly people are attracted to Macalester because of its international outlook and history, but
also because of the Minnesota presence on campus,” says Nancy Mackenzie, assistant dean of admissions. “The Midwestern values, the openness, the warmth. In my mind, the presence of Minnesota students plays a big part in Macalester’s tradition.”

Macalester students have also played a big part in Minnesota’s traditions. Though many Mac grads
stay on in the Twin Cities to start careers and families, Alexander “Sandy” Hill ’57, former
assistant to Macalester’s president, notes that there’s also a long tradition of “Macalester graduates
who went back to their own towns, taking leadership roles throughout Minnesota. Many became mayors, school board members, and were very politically active.” He cites John “Jack” Echternacht ’41, a dentist who led a 26-year campaign to persuade Brainerd, Minnesota, to fluoridate its water supply, as a prime example of ways in which the Macalester experience trained and emboldened Minnesota graduates to make a difference in their communities. “I imagine that’s why some of these scholarships have been created lately,” says Hill. “These donors came from small towns, and they know what a Macalester education did for them.”

"MACALESTER EDUCATES CITIZEN LEADERS FOR THE WORLD COMMUNITY. BUT THE TWIN CITIES AND MINNESOTA ARE PART OF THAT COMMUNITY, AND IT'S IMPORTANT THAT SOME OF THE BEST AND MOST CAPABLE STUDENTS IN MINNESOTA ARE ABLE TO BENEFIT FROM THE MACALESTER EXPERIENCE."
—TIMOTHY HULTQUIST '74

Timothy Hultquist '72 born in Faribault and raised in Anoka, agrees. “Macalester educates citizen leaders for the world community,” he says. “But the Twin Cities and Minnesota are part of that community, and it’s important that some of the best and
most capable students in Minnesota are able to benefit from the Macalester experience.”

Hultquist, a 1968 Minnesota state golf champion, first learned of Macalester while attending Boys State, a summer leadership and citizenship program sponsored by the American Legion. On the program one evening was a talk by political science professor G. Theodore Mitau ’40, a refugee from Nazi Germany who went on to become one of the college’s legendary and life-changing faculty members. “Ted Mitau was the most interesting and inspiring person I’ve ever heard speak,” Hultquist recalls. “From that time on, Macalester was the place I wanted to go.”

Though he came to Mac as a prelaw student with an interest in philosophy and constitutional
law, “because of some very good professors in the Economics Department, I began to shift away from political science, and toward financial markets, and even mathematics,” says Hultquist, who has held a series of high-profile positions with Morgan Stanley & Co., in New York, Chicago, and London. “Like many students who come to Mac, I made a change in direction,” he says. “I ended up falling in love with economics.”

A trustee at Macalester from 1985 to 2006, Hultquist and his wife, Cindy, established the Helen and Wayne Hultquist Endowed Scholarship, in part to honor his late mother and his father, now 92, who
invested in their son’s education by paying for the first three years of his tuition; Hultquist paid for the fourth. It was an arrangement that was manageable a generation ago but is out of reach today, with current tuition and room and board costs totaling more than $44,000. “It’s almost inconceivable that a student today would be able to do what I did,” he says. “A Macalester education is worth its weight in gold, but like gold, it’s expensive.”

Rising senior Emma Bailey, a biology major from Bloomington, says financing an education as Hultquist did is almost unheard of now. “Though it’s something I would love to have done if it were even in the realm of possibility,” says Bailey, who keeps up with her loans with the help of campus jobs on the grounds crew and as a biology lab prep assistant. She’s also a Hultquist Scholarship winner, and recently sent a thank-you note to her benefactor. “The financial aid package is a little mysterious and you’re always focused on the bottom line,” says Bailey. “But lately I’ve begun to appreciate the fact that there are real people behind these scholarships, not just some nebulous group of trustees.” That realization made her even more grateful for the assistance, she says,
and encouraged by the example of Macalester grads who give back to their college. “I like hearing stories in which Macalester graduates go on to be wildly successful,” she says. “It gives me faith.”

Hultquist was very glad to receive her letter and shared it with his father, for whom the scholarship
is named. “It’s wonderful to see a student come to Macalester and make the most of the experience,” he says. He also hopes that scholarships like this will help keep Macalester among the top choices of talented Minnesota students, who, in a more fluid and competitive college environment, may believe they have to go farther afield to get a top-notch education. The distance may not matter as much as the destination, Hultquist adds. “A Minnesota high school student can meet the whole world community at Macalester, which is what I did,” he says.

“At Mac, the world really comes to you.”

That was one of the attractions for Kasey Hoey, a rising junior from Cannon Falls, Minnesota. She knew she wanted to stay close to home for college, but also wanted a campus that offered rigorous academics and a wider worldview. “I don’t come from a big city where everyone is exposed to a lot of diversity and free thinking,” says Hoey, the recipient of the Vander Ploeg Family Scholarship. She does note, however, that her small-town background often provides a perspective her classmates may not have heard before.

May graduate Eric Casanova, a theater major from Ranier, Minnesota, says that in-state students
may seem exotic to students coming from outside the Midwest. He jokes that he’s helped friends from around the world understand “how to pronounce things with a Midwestern accent.”

“One of the best parts of being here is that you’re able to interact with students from around the world who have so many great perspectives,” says Casanova, the recipient of the Georgia Larsen Parchem Endowed Scholarship, awarded to junior or senior theater majors from the Dakotas, Montana, or Minnesota. “I have friends from every state and all over the world, and it’s great knowing that once I leave Macalester, I’m going to have friends in a ton of different places. It makes the world feel really small.”

Jerry Meigs '57 and his late wife, Jeanne Meigs '58, made a similar discovery while students at Macalester. In their nearly half-century marriage, the couple visited 35 countries, even administering polio vaccine in places such as Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and India. That’s a long way to go for a couple of kids from Sauk Centre and Minnesota Lake, but Jerry says that journey started when they first came to campus, meeting and befriending fellow students from Eastern Europe and Africa.

“That was a real eye opener for a kid from a small town,” says Meigs, a longtime member of Rotary
International who got his first campus tour from Charles Turck himself, “bumping up Old Main with
our suitcases.”

“What Jeanne and I found is that the more you travel, the more you meet people from around the
world and see how they live, the more you see we’re really all the same,” he says. “That’s the real value of an international education.”

While other Mac alumni may talk about finding their true academic passion on campus, or their political voice, Meigs is proudest of finding his life partner, Jeanne Putz, in Spanish class. “She was just a lonesome little freshman and I was a mighty sophomore,” he recalls. “And from the first day in that class it’s like it was meant to be. It was a great partnership and a great friendship.” The Meigs were just a few months short of celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary when Jeanne died in February 2008.

Before her death, however, the couple had spent time considering how to use their estate to support
the values and causes that had shaped their lives together. Jerry had enjoyed a long career that started with a job at St. Paul Book and Stationery, and later at ECM Publishers, working with the late Minnesota Governor Elmer L. Andersen. Jeanne raised their two sons, and she was active in volunteer work at her church and at Macalester.

“As time went on, we started to see these small towns struggle—the rural areas where Jeanne and
I came from,” Meigs says, noting the dwindling job and population trends in some out-state areas. “But she and I knew bright and capable young people can come from a town of 2,000 just as easily as from a city of 200,000.”

His own family’s experience reminded him, too, how hard it can be for small-business owners, farmers, and others in rural areas to afford to send a child to a private college like Macalester. When Meigs was in high school, his father’s hotel and restaurant business burned to the ground. “He lost everything he had,” says Meigs. “So I realize how thin the line is between life being good, and life being completely different.”

That’s one reason the Jeanne A. and Gerald A. Meigs Endowed Scholarship is earmarked for students
outside the seven-county metro area, and from towns with 50,000 residents or fewer. “If you’re
from Duluth, you’re out of luck—but if you’re from Milaca, you’re in great shape,’’ Meigs jokes.

Though these scholarship guidelines may seem arbitrary, in fact, he and Jeanne gave their gift provisions a lot of thought. “It’s important that Macalester maintain its diverse student body, and as it
goes higher up the ladder of selective schools, the last thing you want is for it to become an enclave of people who come from a certain part of the country, or from a certain income level,” says Meigs. “It was also our way of making sure Macalester gets out there and markets itself to the small towns, and is thoughtful about the fact that a broad base of students is important to the quality of the school. People from small towns are often stretched financially, and we want to make sure that talented kids from those places know that Macalester is accessible to
them, should they choose to come.”

Meigs attended a celebration of the United World College scholars at Macalester a month after
Jeanne’s death, the first college function he’d gone to without her. Though it was bittersweet, he’s glad they had the chance to give back to the place that brought them together.

“It’s one of the joyful things in life, that if you have the opportunity to gain some success and you
have the means, to leave behind a legacy that carries forward part of your belief system,” Meigs says. “Jeanne and I both felt we’d had helping hands along the way, and this endowment will be a helping hand for the next Jeanne and Jerry who come along.”

LAURA BILLINGS COLEMAN is a nationally published freelance writer living in St. Paul.