J Elder is happy to mix some Panther purple in with the cardinal and gold that colors the offices of Elder Corporation in Des Moines.

An Iowa State University landscape architecture graduate, J says UNI ended up being the better fit for his two sons, Gavin and Jared.

“They flourished there,” he says. “Gavin has an accounting degree and Jared really liked the hands-on culture he found in the construction management program. It fit his personality.”

J has made a generous gift to the renovation and modernization of the Applied Engineering Building. In honor of the company’s support, the large Construction Site Simulation Lab will bear the Elder Corporation name.

Elder Corporation, where “dozing on the job is completely acceptable,” is an excavating and site development contractor that has been a part of many of the state’s largest and most complex construction projects. J’s dad, Jerry, and grandfather, RG, started the business in 1960. RG was a general carpenter and performed construction work in addition to farming. As a high schooler, Jerry added to the enterprise by digging basements. From those beginnings grew Elder Corporation.

As a kid, J spent as much time in the shop as he could, often scheming to get out of home chores in favor of working with his dad.

“It always felt like home,” J says. “I always planned to join the business.” Jerry died in 2015 and until recently, J’s mother, Judi, helped run the front office at Elder. J’s 7-year old Labradoodle, Dozer, comes to the office every day.

J says it wasn’t a hard decision to help support the AEB project. Not only did he appreciate Jared’s experience in the department, he thinks it’s just good business to help support the industry’s future leaders.

“Just like my dad gave me the tools I needed to succeed, the CM program at UNI gives students the tools they need to be successful in the construction industry,” he explained.

There are a handful of UNI grads at Elder Corporation, including executive vice president Jim McFadden, a UNI accounting alum. J says he will continue to keep an eye out for future UNI hires, and he anticipates Jared will join the business soon.

“The UNI CM [construction management] grads have skills that I don’t get from the other schools, and we have a culture here of retaining people,” he says. “We turn over dirt, not employees.”