Iowa Innovation Award
Iowa Innovation Award
The Des Moines Water Works Iowa Innovation Award was established in 2022 and recognizes an individual who has made a positive impact on planet Earth. The award emphasizes displaying the park foundation’s core values. Nominees exhibit the park foundation’s vision and mission through their work by fostering stewardship for clean water and nature.
Each year, the Des Moines Water Works Park Foundation votes on nominated individuals. Our Inaugural recipient, Clair Patterson, was recognized in September 2022. Patterson could age the earth and was primarily responsible for removing lead from paint, gasoline, food containers, and water distribution systems.
2022 Iowa Innovation Award Winner:
Clair Patterson
“The Most Important Scientist You’ve Never Heard Of” – Lucas Reilly
Clair Cameron Patterson (June 2, 1922 – December 5, 1995) was an American geochemist. Born in Mitchellville, Iowa, Patterson graduated from Grinnell College. He later received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and worked at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
Patterson helped galvanize the environmental movement 50 years ago when he announced that highly toxic lead could be found everywhere on Earth, including in our bodies—and that very little could be due to natural causes.
2023 Iowa Innovation Award Winner:
David Hurd
Born in Chicago, Dave moved to Des Moines in 1954, found work at (then) Bankers Life, fell in love with the city, and soon adopted it as home. During his forty-year career as the Principal, he learned from respected mentors the importance of community activism and contributing to causes that improve the quality of life for all. As his business career matured, he became interested in the growth of Des Moines and immersed himself in helping make that growth happen. He believed his purpose in life was to make the world a better place, whether by picking up debris, raising funds for worthwhile causes, making donations from his funds, or building networks of friends and acquaintances to have a stronger, more prosperous community. He lived his life to those ends.
As an active and respected businessman, Dave and a few other community leaders began to talk about Des Moines as a world-class city in the late 80s. People started to take notice. As he took his company international, his increased opportunities to travel fueled his vision for Des Moines even more. He contributed enormous time and treasure toward reaching that goal for the next 25+ years.
Dave loved all things in and about nature. Canoeing, rowing, camping, and exploring remained among his favorite pastimes. Some of his passions are clean water, outdoor recreation & education, saving the environment, restoring prairies, and creating opportunities for increased health and wellness for employees at Principas. He was an avid runner and biker, primarily through Water Works Park. The ideas for increased use of the park for all citizens such as opportunities for paddle boarding, more recreation and enjoyment of the outdoors, chances to be near a river and learn about utilization of our critical water sources, places for families and friends to gather and relax, new areas to walk, jog, rollerblade – all this excited him. He knew these were vital ingredients for a World Class City.
The Hurd Visionaries, recognizing $10,000 contributors to the Foundation, was based on Dave’s habit of wearing interesting lapel pins. His purpose was to engage in quiet conversation about the environment. When asked about a pin, he would say, “It’s just a reminder that we are all responsible for the almost minor things.”
