Graceful leader

By The Gazette Editorial Board

Bill Whipple got things done for our community and did it with a graceful style, we are reminded after his death Tuesday at age 96.

One of Whipple's greatest leadership achievements came in 1981, when the retired insurance executive headed the Hall-Perrine Foundation. Cedar Rapids voters had rejected five bond referendums to finance a new public library. Saying the “tyranny of the minority” had taken over, he announced a $6.8 million H-P challenge grant. It was a huge commitment from the organization's coffers of about $30 million. And it worked. Private donors chipped in $1.3 million and the new library opened in 1985. H-P's first executive director helped grow the foundation into its ongoing major role.

Whipple displayed community leadership in many ways. An original member of the Meth-Wick Community board, he found a financing source needed to complete The Manor, which sat half-built in 1960. The captain of Coe College's championship track team became a longtime Coe trustee. His service and personal financial support wound through Coe, the arts, St. Luke's Health Care Foundation and firefighters, among others.

Bill Whipple was a model to which we all can aspire, someone whose community impact will live on for decades.