Quiet Champion of
Service Jane Folwell spent decades working behind the scenes
in the halls of the US Congress. She then devoted another 40 years to quietly serving her native Quad Cities as an active volunteer and earnest philanthropist.
by Craig DeVrieze
22
Those two very distinct chapters of a proud life of service seamlessly came together in 2001 when Jane Folwell generously endowed the first academic chair in St. Ambrose University history. Today, the Frank and Jane Folwell Chair in Political Science and Pre-Law at SAU is among 15 endowed funds targeted to enhance academic programs and study opportunities at St. Ambrose. And when Jane Folwell died in May at the age of 88, she left behind a perfect template for other dedicated and generous St. Ambrose donors to follow, said Bill Parsons, PhD, a professor of political science and leadership studies who has occupied the Folwell chair for the past nine years. “You couldn’t ask for a better example of what the perfect philanthropist would be for our university,” said Parsons. “The one thing I will miss the most is that our students from here on won’t have the opportunity to meet her.” Folwell stepped up quickly when Steve Goebel, former assistant to the president for planned and deferred giving at St. Ambrose, presented a plan to endow five academic chairs in ways that would honor the life of SAU’s namesake saint. “She said ‘Steve, I would like to be the first to endow one of these chairs and I would like to do it in political science because that is the one nearest to my heart,” Goebel recalled.
Folwell, who was recognized with an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree from St. Ambrose in May of 2001, began her life in public service as a legislative aide in Des Moines. She went to the nation’s capital in 1951 to work on the staff of Iowa Republican Sen. Bourke Hickenlooper. She subsequently worked for several legislators, before retiring in 1972 as the office manager for the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. While in Washington DC, Folwell met and married Robert Borth, a powerful lobbyist. They retired together to her native Davenport. Following Borth’s death, she married well-known QC retailer Frank Folwell, an active civic volunteer and philanthropist. The Folwells were annual donors to St. Ambrose for years, but Jane Folwell became more involved with the university following Frank’s death in 1997, Goebel said. She was a member of the Planned Giving Advisory Council when she came forward to endow the Folwell Chair. “She said, ‘Steve, I just feel St. Ambrose