Triumph Over Tragedy

Judy Nissen’s life story has the makings for an inspirational bestseller. After hearing her saga, many say she should take up writing.

“My friends are always telling me I should write a book,” says Nissen. “I like to share my story. People are amazed by the challenges I’ve faced.”

Nissen’s story is indeed one of tragedy and triumph. It's surprising a person who has experienced so much heartbreak, could be so hopeful and full of life.

“After all the tragedies in my life I made a conscious decision that it wouldn’t destroy me,” she said. “I had to find a new meaning and purpose in my life.”

Few would blame Nissen if she had stayed within herself. After graduating with a degree in family and consumer sciences from the University of Northern Iowa, she took a high school teaching job in Tyler, Minn., to be near her boyfriend who was a student at South Dakota State University. The couple married and lived in towns throughout Iowa. They had two daughters before Nissen’s husband died from Hodgkin’s disease at the age of 29.

Two and a half years later, Nissen remarried and followed her new husband to Seoul, South Korea. Things didn’t work out in Korea and after less than two years the young family settled back in the States in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Six months later, she was divorced and a single parent again.

“He decided he didn’t want to be with us anymore and left,” she said. “There I was in Colorado Springs, knowing no one and without a good job.”

Nissen still had a valid teaching certificate in Iowa and several years of teaching experience. She moved her family back to Iowa, settling in Marshalltown. There she went to work at the local community college.

“I was desperate to come back to Iowa and to a job with full benefits,” she said. “The pay was absolutely awful, but it was a job.”

But tragedy would strike Nissen again in Marshalltown. Her daughters, ages 15 and 13, were killed in a car accident.

“I wondered 'What am I going to do?'” she recalled. “This was absolutely the worst time of my life. If Bob hadn’t been there for support, I’m not sure what I would have done.”

Bob was Bob Nissen, her future husband. He encouraged her to go back to school to obtain a master’s degree. She enrolled in a weekend program at Truman State University in Missouri, earning that master’s in 1987.

But Nissen wanted more and enrolled in the doctoral program in education at Iowa State University.

“I had met Larry (Ebbers, university professor of educational leadership and policy studies) through a community college organization and he encouraged me to come to Iowa State,” she said. “I was 45 years old at the time and my goal was to finish my Ph.D. by the time I was 50.”

She accomplished that goal, while working full time for Iowa Valley Community College District. She later parlayed that degree into a community college position in Nebraska and a university position in Sioux Falls, S.D., where she served as director of the Center for Public Higher Education.

Shortly after she retired, tragedy struck Nissen again. Bob became ill and died in 2003. Prior to his death, he had become an active investor and grew the couple’s assets. He passed that passion along to Nissen.

“Bob and I were both teachers and one of the things we wanted to do was find a way to support and encourage education,” she said.

Which Nissen has done at multiple institutions. She established scholarships in her daughters’ names at Marshalltown Community College, another scholarship at South Dakota State University in recognition of her first husband, and another scholarship for single parents in Sioux Falls.

Iowa State has also benefited from Nissen’s philanthropy. An ISU Foundation governor, Nissen serves as chair of the College of Human Sciences’ National Campaign Committee.

She gives back, she says, because of the support that Ebbers gave her while pursuing her doctorate.

“Iowa State embraced me,” she said. “If it weren’t for Iowa State and Larry Ebbers, I just might not have made it. But this university has been supportive of me, so I’m grateful to give back.

“What I have been able to do for Iowa State is just a small return for what it has done for me.” When Nissen initially contacted the ISU Foundation about a gift, she was thinking only about establishing a scholarship. With the advice of her financial advisors and sound investing, Nissen soon realized she could do more.

The result is the Dr. Judy K. Nissen Chair in Community College Leadership, an endowed faculty position that also honors Ebbers.

“Larry influenced me to finish my degree. He has done so much for community colleges in Iowa and throughout the nation, this seemed like a nice way to honor him,” she said.

“I was totally amazed I could do something like this. It is extremely special to me and is so much more than I ever dreamed I could do.”

Sounds like the perfect ending to a good book.