Good Fortune Inspires Gift

Ron McClellan ’61 established the Ronald E. McClellan Scholarship to help free deserving Cyclones from debt-induced financial worries. His generosity allows them to concentrate on their studies and growth.

Growing up in a relatively poor family in Marshalltown, Iowa, Ron McClellan ’61 knew his parents wouldn’t be able to help him pay for college. He also realized the $160 he earned each month from his summer job as a golf caddy master wouldn’t last long.

“However, I had naively enrolled at Iowa State,” he said. “I felt destined to become an Iowa State engineering student in eighth grade after scoring very well on some special tests that I did for Louise Colleran, my math teacher. I really had no idea what an engineer did and had never known one at that time.”

Thankfully, he decided to give it a go anyway.

McClellan went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Iowa State in 1961 and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of New Mexico in 1963, after which he pursued a career filled with achievement. He worked as a mechanical engineer at places like Sandia Corporation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Livermore, California, and Ford Aerospace in Palo Alto, California, where he retired at the age of 55.

His professional success is due in large part to the foundation he built at Iowa State, made possible by the financial support he received. McClellan explained that Ray Engel, a former head of engineering at Fisher Governor Company, had established two full-ride scholarships each year for Marshalltown High School seniors.

“Much to my surprise, I was awarded one of these in 1957,” he said. “Because of my good fortune, I wanted to give back in the future and began my own scholarship at Iowa State in 1983.”

In the decades since, the Ronald E. McClellan Scholarship has benefitted many senior students in the department of mechanical engineering at Iowa State.

“I hope it helps them go into the workforce without a big debt hanging over their head,” he said of the impact he wants the scholarship to have on students. “That [level of debt] was not something that happened when I was that age.”

In 2019, McClellan added a significant gift to his estate plan that will fund the scholarship in perpetuity and provide him with some income. “I now feel that I can have a positive effect on Iowa State long after I am gone,” he said.

Contact the office of gift planning at 800.621.8515 or giftplanning@foundation.iastate.edu to learn how you could impact Cyclones for generations to come, just as Ron was inspired to do as a scholarship recipient himself.