Iowa City school board names new elementary school after Norman Borlaug

The Iowa City school district's newest elementary school will be named after Norman Borlaug, an Iowa native and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The school board Tuesday night selected the name upon the recommendation of a committee tasked with considering the issue. The school, set to open in summer 2012, has been informally called the Crossings after the neighborhood in which is located.

A native of Cresco in northern Iowa, Borlaug was an agronominist and is known as the father of the "green revolution. He is credited with saving up to 1 billion lives through his work with food production and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.

He died in September 2009 at age 95.

Norman Borlaug Elementary will replace Roosevelt Elementary when it opens. Construction is to start in the spring on a 10-acre site off Camp Cardinal Boulevard, just inside Coralville city limits.

"I guess your school colors can be green," school board member Toni Cilek said.