{"id":6917,"date":"2024-09-12T12:23:58","date_gmt":"2024-09-12T17:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/?p=6917"},"modified":"2025-02-27T12:33:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T18:33:50","slug":"eichacker-harper-family-recipients-of-the-university-of-iowa-family-spirit-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/2024\/09\/12\/eichacker-harper-family-recipients-of-the-university-of-iowa-family-spirit-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Eichacker-Harper family recipients of the University of Iowa Family Spirit Award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Eichacker-Harper family was selected to receive the 2024 University of Iowa Family Spirit Award. Front row, from left: Julie Flack Eichacker, Lois Harper Eichacker, George Eichacker, and Kenton Eichacker. Back row: Milton Eichacker, Lois Eichacker Jr., and Virginia Eichacker (Submitted photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Eichacker-Harper family has been making Iowa history for five generations. Now, the family has been recognized with the well-deserved University of Iowa Family Spirit Award for their longstanding contributions to the university.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Virginia Eichacker serves on the Libraries Advancement Council.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The Libraries is fortunate to work closely with Virginia Eichacker (BS \u201987, JD \u201992), who is a member of the Libraries Advancement Council<\/a> (LAC). Her parents, Lois and George, as well as her brother, sister, and aunt, also earned degrees from Iowa\u2014and the Libraries are proud to hold the Lois Eichacker Papers<\/a> in the Iowa Women\u2019s Archives (IWA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Family Spirit Award recognizes a family\u2014spanning at least three generations of UI graduates\u2014that has substantially benefited from and continues to advocate for the university, as well as contributes toward bettering the state of Iowa and its communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The family\u2019s story is a testament to their community-minded outlook. In 1994, Lois was elected as the first African American president of the UI Alumni Association\u2019s Board of Directors. Lois\u2019 sister and her daughter Virginia\u2019s namesake, Virginia Harper, was one of the first five students to integrate Currier Residence Hall in 1946, where a mural now commemorates their achievements at the university and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Virginia Eichacker\u2019s aunt, Virginia Harper (furthest right), was one of the five undergraduate women who integrated Currier Residence Hall in 1946.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Virginia Eichacker has come to treasure a black-and-white photograph of the five women taken during their first days in Currier. In February 2024, she shared a reflection on the image and her aunt\u2019s legacy: \u201cAs I look at the picture of the young women who integrated Currier Hall in 1946, the first thing that strikes me was that they were not looking into the camera but at something that appeared to be in the distance,\u201d she wrote. \u201cShe did not imagine that 75 years later (in 2021), [the photo] would be part of a mural in a room in Currier Residence Hall\u2014which she had been excluded from the year before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Eichacker-Harper family will be honored at the Iowa football game on Sept. 14, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read more about the Eichacker-Harper family and the University of Iowa Family Spirit Award<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Eichacker-Harper family has been making Iowa history for five generations. Now, the family has been recognized with the well-deserved University of Iowa Family Spirit Award for their longstanding contributions to the university. The Libraries is fortunate to work closely with Virginia Eichacker (BS \u201987, JD \u201992), who is a member of the Libraries AdvancementContinue reading “Eichacker-Harper family recipients of the University of Iowa Family Spirit Award”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":331,"featured_media":6921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,12,14,15,1],"tags":[],"syndication":[47,33,80],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6917"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6917"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7290,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6917\/revisions\/7290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6917"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=6917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}