September 7, 1876, may have started like any other day for Joseph Lee Heywood, bank clerk at First National Bank in Northfield.
Then Jesse James rode in.
James and his gang demanded Heywood open the bank vault. Inside lay the savings of many of the townspeople—along with all the liquid assets of the young Carleton College.
Heywood refused. The James gang shot and killed him.
It’s a story that strikes a powerful chord with Jim Bonhivert ’74.
“He sacrificed his life to protect the future of Carleton,” Jim said. “He did this in service to others.”
And this is the point all Carleton alumni should be thinking about doing as well, Jim says: helping protect the college that so deeply enriched the lives of all Carls.
Jim and his wife, Christine Bonhivert ’75, joined Carleton’s Joseph Lee Heywood Society last year, as Jim’s milestone Reunion approached. They had already established a named scholarship to help students from low-income backgrounds afford Carleton’s top-notch education. But when Jim heard the story of Heywood and how committed he had been to protecting the College’s future, he was inspired to do more.
“Heywood could have opened the bank vault, and all of Carleton’s money would have been gone. There was no federal deposit insurance in the year 1876, so Carleton would have disappeared. He actually died for us,” Jim said. “I think that more Carleton graduates need to be aware of Joseph Lee Heywood and his commitment to the future of the school.”
In sharing Heywood’s story more broadly, Jim says he hopes to plant seeds in the minds of students and alumni long before their 50th Reunions. “Someday, they will have a growing sense of gratitude for their Carleton education and for those who came before and helped make their experience possible,” Bonhivert said. “Joining the Heywood Society is easy, and there’s no minimum required. It’s a meaningful way to pay it forward—after all, it’s our turn now to protect Carleton’s future.”