Charitable Giving

Making a difference

The Linda and Duanne Thiel Memorial Scholarship

For many in the IU community and for the folks back home in his home state of Iowa, John Thiel’s many acts of kindness to others are almost legendary. A much-decorated Army veteran who served two tours of duty in Viet Nam, John retired from the Army in 1971, due to the injuries he’d suffered in Viet Nam, and enrolled at IU.

When John was a student here, the Americans with Disabilities Act did not exist, so he co-founded the first Disabled American Veterans chapter on a college campus and successfully petitioned the university for accommodations that are now commonplace, including IU’s first handicapped-accessible parking spaces. John then went on to earn his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees from IU’s Kelley School of Business.

Among his many achievements, John has taught courses in business strategy and management at the University of Tennessee, IU, and Indiana State University. In a true labor of love, he also documented the personal histories of each of the 39 Army Chemical Corps members who served with him in Viet Nam and who died there. “Major histories of that time often overlook smaller units like the Chemical Corps. If the unit’s forgotten,” he says, “then they’re forgotten, and I don’t want them to fade into oblivion.”

John Thiel has been a successful businessman, teacher, leader, mentor, consultant, historian and, above all, a philanthropist, unselfishly giving of his time and money to countless worthy causes.

During his career, John has been a successful businessman, teacher, leader, mentor, consultant, and historian. Above all, John has been a philanthropist, unselfishly giving of his time and money to countless worthy causes.

For example, a partial list of John’s charitable giving includes two endowed scholarships at IU’s Kelley School of Business; an endowed scholarship for a graduating senior at Davenport, IA’s, West High School; an endowed scholarship for a graduating senior at Dyersville, IA’s, Beckman High School; an endowed scholarship at the Davenport Schools in honor of a classmate who was killed in Viet Nam; and an endowed scholarship at the Humboldt, IA, schools in honor of Alma Edgington who, in 1943, died while rescuing her students from a burning school. John’s current plans call for endowing two scholarships at the IU School of Education and one at IUSON BL … and that is where our involvement with John begins.

Working with the IU Foundation and IUSON BL, John has established the Linda and Duanne Thiel Memorial Scholarship to honor the memory of his wives Linda and Duanne and their valiant struggles with chronic brain disease.

Linda Uffman Thiel

John first met Linda on the Friday of his first week back in school after leaving the Army. Linda was in her first week of Kelley’s MBA program. “She was very intelligent,” he says, “and something of a trailblazer in that she was one of the first women in the industrial IT world.” John and Linda were married for ten years when the signs of the disease that would eventually claim her life first appeared.

Linda was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. John tells the heartbreaking story of how he watched his brilliant wife go through “an endless iteration of exacerbations and remissions, but always on the decline and nibbling away at her memory.” John continued to take care of Linda although “the physical demands were really more than I should have handled given my own disabilities (suffered in Viet Nam), but help was almost impossible to find in the ‘90s.” Eventually, after 27 years of marriage, Linda died in hospice.

Of the Linda and Duanne Thiel Memorial Scholarship, John Thiel says: “Memory care takes a special kind of person, and this scholarship will help. Hopefully, the earning power of the initial endowment will grow and provide an ever-increasing amount of help. That’s the plan, and I am committed to fulfilling that plan.”

Duanne Ott Thiel

Sometime before her death, John and Linda stopped in Dyersville, IA, to visit an acquaintance who, like John, was an avid toy collector and who often attended Dyersville’s large toy shows. John and Linda were shocked when they were told that the friend, the owner of Leroy’s Pizza, had died in an automobile accident just two weeks earlier. Leroy’s widow, Duanne, gave them the sad news.

Nearly two years later – “feeling the need to get out of the house and out of town” – John headed to the Summer Farm Toy Show in Dyersville. Having just lost Linda, John remembered Duanne and how strong she had been in dealing with her husband’s death. “Having just gone through that same experience, I knew I could not have been that strong. I thought, if she was still at the pizza place, I would tell her that. She was there, and we talked for about twenty minutes about grief and our mutual loss.” The brief meeting ended with a promise that the couple would meet again during the following November’s toy show.

Seventeen months later, John and Duanne were married. However, less than six years into the marriage, tragedy struck again: Duanne was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. “When Linda was diagnosed with MS,” says John, “there was hope that it would stop progressing because it often did. With AD, there is no hope.” John continued to care for Duanne until, following the wishes of her children, he moved her into a nursing home closer to them. “She spent the last four years of our marriage and her life in that home,” he says.

John had seen the two women he loved struck down by chronic and often fatal neurological disorders, and he was determined to keep their memories alive. IUSON BL’s Linda and Duanne Thiel Memorial Scholarship is just one more demonstration of that intense determination. Eligibility for the scholarship is based on admission to IUSON BL, with a preference for a nursing student who demonstrates a special interest in memory care.

“Today, there are special facilities being built for people with memory issues,” says John, “and they’ll need staff – not only for the patients – but also for their families. Memory care takes a special kind of person, and this scholarship will help. Hopefully, the earning power of the initial endowment will grow and provide an ever-increasing amount of help. That’s the plan, and I am committed to fulfilling that plan.”

Caring donors like John Thiel are the foundation upon which our school is built. To learn more about the many ways in which you can help our students, email iubnurse@indiana.edu or call 812-855-1736. To give to the Red Scrubs Scholarship, please click on the Give Now button.