Distinguished University of Iowa alum Jerre Stead talked to the Iowa City community on Thursday about his contributions to the univeristy at the “Hawkeyes Give Back: Children’s Medicine Event.”

Jerre and Mary Joy Stead recently committed $37.5 million to establish a Stead Family Scholars Program in the Carver College of Medicine. The gift is part of public $3 billion end goal UI fundraising campaign, which was announced Tuesday.

The program will invest in early-career faculty who are being widely recognized as leaders in their fields.

Stead began his talk on Thursday by reminiscing on his early life. He met his wife, Mary Joy Stead, at 15-years-old before they both went to the University of Iowa.

When they got married, they lived together in a small trailer. Stead worked 40-hour weeks making $1.50 an hour, and they planned their budget in a book, spending just $2,900 a year. The couple still look back at that book today, he said.

Jerre Stead’s career has now spanned over 40 years and has made his mark as a very successful businessman. He has served on 36 corporate and 27 nonprofit boards, received numerous accolades for his work. He is the chairman of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, chairman of the board of Garrett Evangelical Seminary, and sits on the boards of the American Writers Museum and Guideposts.

He announced his new business Stead Impact Ventures and Foundation in relation to the Stead Foundation on Thursday. The Stead Foundation gave $25 million donation given to the UI Children’s Hospital, leading to its renaming in 2015.

Throughout his journey, Jerre Stead and his wife found that they continuously surprised themselves.

“I hope everyone thinks about that, because we still don’t know what we can do,” he said.

Jerre Stead said he always set three goals going into each project. The reason behind this being that having more than three goals it would be too easy to forget one, but less than three and he wasn’t doing everything he could.

When Stead found out his mother had Alzheimer’s, he knew he wanted to help save others from that fate. He started supporting the Alzheimer’s Association to first find a prevention method.

Stead set this 20-year goal 18 years ago, and he is hopeful that by the beginning of 2026, much progress will have been made.

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At the end of his talk, Stead put up a QR code so that UI students, faculty, staff, and anyone affiliated could share words of encouragement with a patient or health care worker as well as donate to support patients if they had the means.

“Trust every person 100 percent; put your faith in one another,” Stead said.