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Wilton grad to lead Hoover Presidential Library
by Rob Poggenklass · News · January 10, 2007
Allgood plans focus on community, marketing
There are a host of metaphors for the trio of entities that comprise the Hoover Complex in West Branch. Some, perhaps unfairly, call it a three-headed beast. Others more affectionately refer to it as a three-legged stool — suggesting that without one of the legs, none of the three entities would survive.
The new executive director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Association — the non-profit organization that supports the other two “legs,” the National Historic Site and Presidential Library-Museum — says that she likes the stool metaphor, but with an addition.
There’s a fourth leg, Becky Allgood says, and it’s the community of West Branch. Together with the Hoover Complex, Allgood believes the four entities can form one, solid table.
Allgood was hired last week by the Hoover Association’s board of trustees to oversee the group’s operations, which are located inside the Yellow House near the entrance to the Library-Museum. She replaces Pat Forsythe, who left the Association last month after 18 years in West Branch.
It won’t take long for Allgood to get familiar with her surroundings — she grew up in nearby Wilton, graduating from Wilton High School in 1969. The Iowa City resident has attended Hooverfest, the Association’s annual celebration of President Hoover’s birthday. She has several West Branch friends, and most importantly, she has already fallen in love with the community.
“I’m excited to be here in West Branch,” Allgood said on Monday. “The small town of West Branch is a jewel. It has so much potential.”
Allgood brings to the Association more than 20 years experience in business development, strategic planning, internal communications and public relations. Before joining the Association, she served as the internal communications consultant for Bandag, Inc. in Muscatine. Prior to that, she was the Eastern Iowa Field Representative for the Iowa Sesquicentennial Commission, and worked as Executive Director of the Manchester Area Chamber of Commerce and the Wilton Area Chamber of Commerce.
Allgood earned a bachelor’s degree in business management and an MBA in organizational development from Upper Iowa University.
“We are pleased and proud to have someone with Becky’s expertise lead the Hoover Library Association,” said Robert Sierk, president of the Association’s board of trustees. “She brings a special energy and strong sense of community, and we look forward to working with her.”
Allgood said her four years of work on the Sesquicentennial Commission, in particular, did wonders for her love of small-town Iowa.
“I’m so proud of my state and the people here,” she said. “I’m a small-town girl that enjoys being that, and I’m proud of it.”
She learned at least one piece of information on her travels, which included a canoe trip along the Mississippi River from Minnesota to Missouri. “We’re all related. I found that out,” she said.
Allgood said the Sesquicentennial Commission “staged Iowa to the world” at the Smithsonian and National Mall in Washington D.C., by offering such items as pork tenderloins from Joensy’s in Solon.
Teams are a focus of Allgood’s management style, and she likes the enthusiastic staff she’s met at the Hoover Association. She says that everyone is passionate about something, and the key is getting them to find out what it is and run with it.
“I believe that no man or woman is an island,” she said. “Great ideas come from groups — the more people involved, the better.”
Allgood calls herself a history buff, which she believes makes her a good fit for that three-legged stool — or four-legged table, whichever you prefer. She believes that Herbert Hoover’s humanitarianism and humble roots can teach us a lot, even today.
“This community should be proud of their heritage and this is part of it,” she said, pointing at the Library-Museum and Historic Site. “We need to preserve where we’ve been, so we know where we’re going. If we destroy that, what would be our legacy?”
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