Philanthropist Melva Bucksbaum dies at age 82

Melva Bucksbaum, a dedicated philanthropist who helped to establish Drake University’s largest and most well-known lecture series, died last weekend. She was 82 years old.

Melva Bucksbaum and her husband Martin, a longtime member of Drake’s governing board, established the Martin Bucksbaum Distinguished Lecture Series through a generous gift to the university. The series—named in honor of Martin, who died in 1995—brings speakers of international stature to Drake’s campus to deliver a major address on issues including business, health, the arts, and international affairs.

More recently the Bucksbaum family—including Melva and Martin’s daughter, 1991 Drake alumna Mary Bucksbaum Scanlan—made a significant gift to the distinctlyDrake fundraising campaign in support of executive education and professional development at Drake. The gift will fortify the Executive Education Center’s status as the region’s leading option for professional development; it will also advance the Bucksbaum Lecture Series as the preeminent intellectual event in central Iowa through a new lecture series focused on business and entrepreneurship.

“Melva Bucksbaum was widely loved and respected, and everyone who worked with her appreciated her passion for the Drake and Des Moines community,” said Drake Law School Professor Neil Hamilton, chair of the Bucksbaum Lecture Series Committee. “She will certainly be missed, but we will continue to draw inspiration from her vision and leadership.”

Melva Bucksbaum was known worldwide as a generous philanthropist with a particular passion for contemporary art. She served as a trustee of New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art; the governing boards of the Jewish Museum and the Drawing Center, both in New York; and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.

Since its inception, the Martin Bucksbaum Distinguished Lecture series has hosted 34 of the world’s most influential speakers, including President Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, poet Maya Angelou, musician Wynton Marsalis, and most recently, National Public Radio Correspondent Nina Totenberg. Every lecture is preceded by a private Q&A session between the speaker and a small group of Drake students—an intimate feature that reflects the Bucksbaums’ commitment to education.

In fall 2014, the Drake community presented Melva Bucksbaum a hardbound book that captured the tremendous impact of the lectureship. Dozens of faculty, staff members, students, alumni, and friends of Drake contributed their memories and thanks.

“I have been attending the Bucksbaum lectures for more than ten years now, since I was a student, and they have served as an amazing opportunity to listen, to learn, and to experience so many individuals and exchanges I would never have thought I would have here in Des Moines,” Jennifer Zwagerman, a 2004 Drake Law School alumna, said in the book. “I always look forward to the next in the series because I know that whomever is chosen will help expand my world and my mind.”

Speakers in the Martin Bucksbaum Distinguished Lecture Series

Peter J. Neufeld
October 27, 2015 (upcoming)