Board of Directors

Ivan “Ike” Ackerman, is the long-time mayor of Waverly (retired 2009), attorney, and an advocate of this project since its inception.

Kris Brunkhorst, Vice-Chair, is a past member of the Historic Preservation Commission; designed a walking tour of the historic southwest district; is a former chair of Heritage Days; a volunteer for the Bremer County Historical Society Museum; worked on the Hazardous Mitigation Committee and recently with the AmeriCorps flood salvage efforts in Waverly; was a founder of the Rail Trail and Garden Club; and is wife of current mayor Bob Brunkhorst.

Elizabeth Hartman, Secretary, is a former city councilwoman and zoning commissioner; a co-founder of the Historic Preservation Commission, Save the Oak, and Trees Forever; a former member of the Development Design Committee and the Board of Adjustment; and a co-founder of the “Big Six” Preservation Committee, for which she is still a board member and city liaison.

Rick Hartman, was a co-founder of Save the Oak and Trees Forever and is the owner of Hartman Services which voluntarily and lovingly maintains the Ira Sturdevant property.

Teri Heimann, Treasurer, has been a treasurer for multiple organizations, a leader of Boy and Girl Scouts of America, and, as a direct descendant of Ira Sturdevant, is a Sturdevant family genealogist.

Duane Liddle, former city councilman at large, stepped up to the plate from the inception of this project and has remained a lead participant through his knowledge of local government and his visionary concepts of Waverly’s potential for heritage tourism.

Terry Lindell, Ph.D., as a long-time Wartburg history professor, has been active in local and cemetery history, serving ten years on the Historic Preservation Commission, as well as a member (and current vice president) of the Bremer County Historical Society, and a member of multiple sesquicentennial committees (Waverly, Bremer County, Iowa, and now the Civil War for the State Historical Society of Iowa.

Barbara Lovejoy-Hess, was a co-founder of the Historic Preservation Commission, an officer of the Boy and Girl Scouts of America, a member of Save the Oak and Trees Forever, and, as a direct descendant of Ira Sturdevant, also brings to the project her expertise in interior design and furniture restoration as well as serving as the on-site board representative.

Douglas Lovejoy, as a direct descendant of Ira Sturdevant, also brings to the project his expertise as an architectural draftsman for University of Northern Iowa.

Mary Meyer, is a member of the Historic Preservation Commission, Bremer County Genealogical Society, and Garden Club; designed a new historic walking tour of southwest Waverly, as well as actively volunteering for Heritage Days, the Waverly Sesquicentennial, and the Hazardous Mitigation Committee; and as a dedicated researcher of Waverly house and neighborhood histories (and a Waverly High School classmate of Rick Sturdevant’s), joined in and supported this project from its inception.

Katherine Scott Sturdevant, Chair, is a Colorado history professor and preservationist (formerly a Historical Editor for the State Historical Society of Iowa) who initiated the campaign to save the Ira Sturdevant House, protect it from demolition, and achieve a State Historical Society grant and eligibility for the National Trust, as well as listing on the Waverly Historic Preservation register, a partnership with Preservation Iowa, and application for its own non-profit status.

Rick Sturdevant, Ph.D., Board Historian, is the Deputy Director of the Air Force Space Command History Office, at Peterson AFB, in Colorado Springs (a job that requires archival, research, writing, preservation expertise), and grew up in Waverly, as a direct descendant of Ira Sturdevant, to be a family historian who retains the archive of his grandfather Frank Sturdevant (recognized as Waverly’s great unofficial historian, genealogist, and town-and-cemetery preservationist).