1978 Library in Wiseman Building
Lillian Wiseman During construction in the Wiseman Building Circulation desk (with Donna Bell, 1978)
In January 1977, Lillian Wiseman, a retired Grants Pass seamstress and dress designer, saw her anonymously donated gift of $10,000 help build a new building on the Redwood campus. Serving as seed money, her gift made it possible to construct the building that houses the library today.
When Lillian gave the gift - unsolicited - to RCC in 1973, she told the college’s board of education to use the money however they wanted. To give the money, but tell the college what to do with it — “that’s not giving all the way,” Miss Wiseman said.
A $1.65 million grant for the construction of the library learning center and admissions office was approved last in 1976. Because of Miss Wiseman’s seed money, one of the largest single donations ever received by any two-year college in the nation, greater yields were returned for years afterward. While the RCC board wisely saved the gift until the grant possibility arose, some $2,200 interest earned from the funds were used for student aid.
“It makes me so happy that I could be part of it,” Lillian remarked when she first visited the site of the building that would be named after her.