Head of Hoover foundation retires

WEST BRANCH — Jerry Fleagle has announced his retirement as president and CEO of the Hoover Presidential Foundation in West Branch, after serving in that role for more than 10 years.

Fleagle said he is proud of his team’s accomplishments during his tenure, praising them as “wonderful people, hard workers, and loyal to the cause of promoting Herbert Hoover.”

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The museum in a news released cited Fleagle's accomplishments as tripling the foundation’s endowment, helping lead “The Making of the Great Humanitarian” exhibit in 2015 and directing the foundation’s acquisition of the former U.S. Bank building, at 127 W. Main St. in West Branch, into The Rummells Center, which hosts foundation functions and provides space to nonprofits free of charge.

Fleagle — pronounced flay-gull — also shepherded the $5 million Hoover tax credit program through the Iowa Legislature for those wishing to contribute to the renovation of the presidential museum.

He has been leading that $20 million capital renovation campaign — called Timeless Values | Modern Experience — which has raised more than $13 million in gifts, pledges and grants to date.

“I believe the campaign is poised to finish strong” by the spring of 2024, he said.

As he retires, Fleagle said he looks forward to spending more time with his grandsons and their families, playing golf and traveling.

“I have worked 50-plus hour weeks, for the most part, since I started managing grocery stores in 1977, and it’s time to refocus my time on the family who sacrificed for me all these years,” he said.

“It was a pleasure to return to my hometown 11 years ago after having left 28 years previously to strike out on my own and purchase my first grocery store,” Fleagle said. “I will still be around — just not as much.”

Mundi McCarty will serve as interim president and CEO while the foundation board undertakes a search for Fleagle’s successor.

The foundation promotes and supports the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum, a National Historic Site, and other programs that enhance the understanding of Hoover as president and as a humanitarian.