Meet Our Donors
Mr. Carl Orville Wehner and Mrs. Wanda Lee Wehner
Carl Orville Wehner was born on July 28, 1929 in Hancock County, Illinois, and Wanda Lee Ponder Wehner was born on October 25, 1929 in Jasper County, Iowa. They met while attending college at the Iowa State Teacher's College (later to become the University of Northern Iowa) in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and married on June 16, 1952. After a few years of teaching at the high school level, they returned to the University of Northern Iowa to earn their Masters degrees in education. They taught at that university for the rest of their careers---Carl in the mathematics and computer science departments and Wanda in the chemistry department.
For over fifty years, Carl and Wanda were active members of First United Methodist Church of Cedar Falls. They were tireless volunteers for many organizations -- the Northeast Iowa Food Bank, Meals on Wheels, Habitat for Humanity, CROP Walk, Thanksgiving In-Gathering, the Cedar Falls Historical Society, the Cedar Valley Arboretum, and the UNI Emeritus Association, to name just a few. They also supported numerous organizations with financial gifts -- including Africa University. When they retired from teaching in 1992, they endowed several teaching scholarships at the University of Northern Iowa to provide financial aid to students interested in becoming math and/or science teachers. Carl died on February 19, 2013, and Wanda died just ten days later on March 1, 2013. They are survived by several brothers and sisters, three daughters, four grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews.