Good Steward Campaign

Help us honor Mary Jean Eisenhower

For more than eight decades, our work to champion the legacy of Dwight D. Eisenhower has carried on, thanks to the time, talent, and financial resources of faithful stewards like you.

Eisenhower believed stewardship was an important part of every American’s duty, stating in 1961 “…we are stewards of what we have received from our forebears and of what we have added to our heritage.”

He understood something important: Citizenship and our shared heritage are not passive. Receiving something valuable creates an obligation to pass it on.

Few people have embodied that idea more faithfully than Mary Jean Eisenhower. As the youngest granddaughter of Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower, Mary Jean has spent much of her life caring for her family’s legacy and serving others. She traveled to more than 80 nations as leader of People to People International, founded by her grandfather to foster international understanding. In retirement, she
returned to her granddad’s hometown of Abilene and continued advocating for his legacy.

Her 10 years of service on The Eisenhower Foundation Board of Directors have been remarkable. She has been our guide and a powerful connection to the uniquely American story of Ike. As Mary Jean steps back from active Board service, we want to ensure that her own legacy of stewardship endures. With her blessing, our Board of Directors has chosen to name the largest space in the new Eisenhower Education Center the Mary Jean Eisenhower Exploration Hall.

Everyone who enters this new space will be reminded of Mary Jean, who understands that a legacy is not simply something we inherit. It is something entrusted to our care. Her name will be a permanent part of a place dedicated to a mission she embodied: bringing people together, inspiring young minds, and passing forward the values of leadership, citizenship, and service.

Now, we have an opportunity to follow her example.

At the Education Center groundbreaking, Mary Jean told us, “every one of you here today holds a part of my granddad’s legacy.” The responsibility for preserving Ike’s legacy belongs to all of us.

Today, we ask you to be a good steward of Ike’s legacy by helping us complete the Eisenhower Education Center and create the Mary Jean Eisenhower Exploration Hall. Your gift of $2,500, $1,000, $500, or whatever is meaningful to you, will transform this building into a fully equipped learning center ready to welcome the leaders of tomorrow.

Your gift will not just preserve Ike’s legacy. It will pass it on. Friends of Mary Jean, including members of our Board of Directors and Trustees, have come together to honor her extraordinary service. They will match every gift dollar-for-dollar, up to $266,000, through December 31, 2026.

That means your gift of $500 becomes $1,000, bringing us closer to completing the Education Center Mary Jean championed. We are now just $550,000 away from our $17 million objective. More than six decades ago, President Eisenhower challenged Americans to be worthy stewards of the greatness they had inherited. Mary Jean answered that challenge. She inherited a remarkable legacy and cared for it faithfully.

Now it is our turn to strengthen it and pass it forward. Will you make a special year-end gift in Mary Jean’s honor?

Together, we can complete the Education Center, welcome generations of students into the Mary Jean Eisenhower Exploration Hall, and fulfill the responsibility she placed in our hands: to be good stewards of her granddad’s legacy.

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