Mary and John Pappajohn

Des Moines, Iowa

Mary and John Pappajohn of Des Moines have built an extraordinarily successful life in Iowa, John’s adopted state. His family immigrated to Mason City from Greece when he was a baby. Today, John is one of the state’s most successful entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, and Mary has been his partner in philanthropic endeavors that have provided nearly $50 million for scholarships, business opportunities and community enhancements.

John attended North Iowa Area Community College and the University of Iowa, where he received a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1952. In 1961, he married Mary, a graduate of the University of Minnesota in related art. John co-founded Guardsman Life Insurance Company in Des Moines in 1962, sold it a few years later and used the profits to start his career as a venture capitalist. As founder of Equity Dynamics, Inc., and Pappajohn Capital Resources, he has helped found more than 50 businesses and has served as a director for more than 40 publicly traded companies.

As philanthropists, John and Mary have focused primarily on providing educational opportunities for young people and business opportunities for budding entrepreneurs. They founded five Pappajohn Entrepreneurship Centers, including the one at Iowa State, which have launched more than 1,450 companies employing 4,400 people. They established the John and Mary Pappajohn Scholarship Fund for disadvantaged and minority students. And they are the lead donors in the John and Mary Pappajohn Higher Education Center in Des Moines, which opened this past fall.

John was named Iowa Business Leader of the Year in 1992 and inducted into the Iowa Business Hall of Fame in 1996. He received the Horatio Alger Award in 1995, given to people who have overcome extraordinary odds to gain success. He received the Beta Gamma Sigma Medallion for Entrepreneurship in 1998 and was the Meredith Wilson Heritage Award recipient. In 2000, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. John and Mary were named Iowa Philanthropists of the Year in 1998.

They are life members of the ISU Alumni Association and members of the Order of the Knoll. The Pappajohns have a daughter, Ann Vassiliou.