DMACC Newton Campus names building after man who helped form it

Carroll Bennett was honored this past week by his fellow DMACC leaders and family members who had gathered on the upper floor of the campus he helped form in Newton. They drank coffee and lemonade and hugged each other with big smiles. It may have been a dedication party, but it felt more like a reunion.

Friends shared old stories about the late DMACC overseer and Newton resident. His portrait and a photo of the campus were displayed on both sides of a podium, though the building in that photograph looked a little different. Above the angled windows overlooking Second Avenue was newly installed blue text.

DMACC on July 8 named the first building in the Newton facility — the main building on campus — the Carroll Bennett Building. Jeff Lamberti, president of the DMACC Foundation Board of Directors, said it is not every day the Iowa community college names a building after somebody.

“It certainly is historic,” he said. “And I don’t think there could be a more fitting naming opportunity than to name this building the Carroll Bennett Building here in the Newton campus. As most of you know, Carroll was born here in Newton and attended college with the support of a Maytag Foundation scholarship.”

He was also an early leader in starting Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny back in 1967. His influence and hard work led to the construction of a new campus in his hometown back in 1993. The Maytag Corporation donated the facility, land and funding to establish the Newton campus.

Lamberti said as a result of a contribution from Scott Bennett, the son of Carroll Bennett and past president of the DMACC Foundation Board of Directors, the Carroll Bennett Building is now a reality. Lamberti thanked Scott Bennett and his wife Karin for their generosity and for the dedication of their family to DMACC.

Rob Denson, president of DMACC, said it was a special day to honor the legacy of a very special individual for all he did for the college and the community. Carroll Bennett was more than a name on a roster or a title on a door, Denson said, he was a visionary with a steady hand and was a tireless advocate for students.

“And a trusted leader in all of DMACC and across the DMACC family,” Denson said. “For more than three decades, he touched not only this campus but the thousands of people DMACC served across our district … Carroll believed in meeting people where they were and helping them get where they wanted to go.”

Carroll Bennett led with humility and served with compassion, and he always reminded his fellow DMACC leaders that the college is an example of positively impacting the lives of others, Denson added. He also credited Carroll Bennett for helping lay the foundation of the community college.

Denson noted he was also a strong advocate for vocational education, or education that focuses on providing set skills and knowledge for specific trades. Denson said Carroll Bennet regularly consulted with the American Vocational Association, now known as Association for Career and Technical Education.

“He appeared before Congress on several occasions to advocate for vocational education and how true we know it is today and how important it is,” he said.

Scott Bennett thanked DMACC for honoring his father. He attributed Carroll Bennett’s success to three core principles: taking risks, paying it forward and leading with kindness and respect. Bennett admitted he never thought of his dad as a risk taker until he was much older. Starting DMACC was a risk.

“They only had a small rented office in the old Ankeny post office and, of course, a dream of what it could become,” Scott Bennett said. “Carroll’s mother, Vina Bennett, advised against leaving a steady high school teaching job for a not-yet-developed community college with a spouse and four kids … at home.”

Carroll Bennett believed in paying it forward, and it was a value he instilled in his kids and grandkids. He never forgot the opportunity the Maytag Foundation scholarship afforded him. Scott Bennett said the pay-it-forward philosophy took an interesting twist in 1993 when the Newton campus first opened.

“Carroll was named first executive dean, and his brother, Jim, who had become a senior executive at Maytag, as his assistant general counsel, accomplished Maytag’s legal work on this transformative donation to DMACC,” Scott Bennett said. “It was the perfect full-circle moment.”

When people find out Scott Bennett is Carroll’s son, they typically talk about a kind note or a letter of encouragement he gave them. Many, he said, still have those notes in their possession. Scott Bennett also recounted how easily his father was able to strike up conversations with people.

It was Carroll Bennett’s belief that in order for people to do their best, they deserved respect. Scott Bennett ended his comments on a quote from his father:

“I want to make it clear that I’ve had a wonderful life. Challenging, fulfilling, exciting, wonderful in every way. Few people I’ve known have traveled as much as Mary Jo and me, have as many grandkids, have four families they often see, love to engage with their kids and grandkids and have friends near and far to be with and see. I don’t know if it could have been better than it’s been.”