Once her path led her to Carleton, Barb Wonson-Liukkonen ’76 says she always loved the story behind the College’s planned giving society. “I love the fact that it represents a real person, Joseph Lee Heywood, standing down there at the bank, saying no to the bank robbers,” she said. “He made the first decision to protect the people’s and the College’s money.”
As tied to the College as she is, Barb’s path didn’t start at Carleton. She’d grown up in Minnesota, and her grandfather, her aunt, and her mother had all been Carls. But Barb wanted to go out East, so she chose Skidmore College, where she was happy—until she ran out of classes to take.
“Skidmore gave me a good start,” she said. “But it had a very small geology department. In my sophomore year I’d already taken all the geology classes they offered. I needed to go where there was a more robust program.”
She returned to Minnesota and found Carleton’s Department of Geology in the mid-1970s to be an engaging place, with a near-equal balance between men and women—a drastic change since Barb’s mother, Dode Wonson ’42, had been the very first woman to graduate from Carleton with a geology degree. Unchanged, though, was the dedication of the faculty. Dode had always appreciated the support she received from then-professor Larry Gould, and Barb says she felt the same way about professors Ed Buchwald, Shelby Boardman, and Eiler Henrickson. “When I transferred, my mom tried not to say ‘I told you so,’” Barb said.
Both Barb and Dode officially joined the Heywood Society in the early 2000s. When Dode passed away in 2009, Barb says she realized how helpful her parents’ thoughtful planning had been in narrowing down what they would like to support. She asked the College to designate her mother’s bequest to the geology department, the same place her support will also go.
“It just seemed like a given to my husband and me that we would give back to the schools that had supported us,” Barb said. “I had a scholarship and a job on campus, and Carleton gave me opportunities. So I’d like to give back and make sure that other students in the future have the same.
“Each of us has the chance to live up to Joseph Lee Heywood’s legacy and make our own decisions to help protect the future of the College.”