An Unforgettable First Impression

Don Soults and his son, DJ, have the same names and soon they will have the same alma mater. A simple mistake contributed to an important decision for both father and son.

After DJ applied to Iowa State last year, a computer glitch sent recruitment mail to his father instead of DJ’s school address. The mistake was soon corrected, but it was a blessing in disguise.

Don was so taken with Iowa State’s recruitment process that he recently joined in a partnership with the office of admissions to help fund the new $1 million Soults Family Welcome Center in the Memorial Union. As for DJ, he became an Iowa State freshmen this fall in aerospace engineering.

“I was impressed with recruitment at Iowa State with both materials they were sending out and their persistence,” Don says. “I thought this new welcome center would be a wonderful keystone for the university’s expanding recruitment programs.”

Attention to admissions processing didn’t occur only to Don. Iowa State President Gregory Geoffroy brought up the idea during a recent meeting of the ISU Foundation Board of Directors, and Don liked it immediately. “I didn’t have any proof the president looked directly at me,” he recalls with a chuckle, “but the idea really resonated.”

The new welcome center includes a presentation room for 70 to 90 guests, a reception area and lounge, space for admissions staff to visit with recruits and much more.

Although Don had received two statistics degrees from Iowa State a bachelor of science in 1961 and a doctorate in 1968 his son’s attendance at Iowa State was no means certain. But, Iowa State’s proactive recruitment won him over.

“Even the mayor of Ames sent me a welcoming letter,” DJ says. “Iowa State really made me feel like they wanted me to go to school there.”

Don feels his experiences at Iowa State set him on a great path. “What I learned at ISU was extremely valuable in my logistics software business. I learned how to be competitive in a technical world.”

An Ames native, Don is cardinal and gold through and through. His father, Maurice, was an Iowa State graduate and long time faculty member with the Iowa State University Extension. His mother worked in registration for many years. “My father’s twin brother, and both my brother and sister attended Iowa State, as did several other Soults family members.”

For most of his career, Don has worked in the computer software industry. After graduation in 1968, he took a position with the Boeing Company in Seattle. When the company formed a subsidiary call Boeing Computer Services, he was relocated to Virginia, subsequently forming his own software company call Routing Technology Software, Inc. That company became Roadshow International, Inc., implementing truck routing and scheduling systems around the world.

He lives near Washington, D.C., not far from daughter Kira and son Devan, and he supports Iowa State with his time and resources. “There are significant challenges for a growing educational institution in a state where the number of high graduates is shrinking,” he says. “That’s why I think that recruitment will become more and more important for ISU.”