More than 225 prominent Minnesotans came to Eastcliff Monday to applaud as the good names of Win and Maxine Wallin were officially attached to the new $80 million Medical Biosciences Building, the latest addition to the research row dubbed the Biomedical Discovery District at the University of MInnesota.
It's a combination worth cheering. Wallin's career has been a University of Minnesota success story. It was grounded in his own education on the Twin Cities campus, where he also met Maxine, who went on to be a university librarian. It continued at Minnesota companies with university ties, reaching its pinnacle at Medtronic, the state's leader in a medical device industry rooted in university-based discoveries.
After retiring as Medtronic's chairman, Wallin returned to the university's medical school for several years of unpaid leadership, stabilizing the school after a troubled period. At about the same time, he and his family established Wallin Educational Partners, a mentoring and scholarship program for disadvantaged youth that has sent 3,000 young people to college who might not otherwise have been able to attend.
Wallin, 84, has been ailing of late. But he was in strong voice Monday as he urged Minnesotans to strive to be "the knowledge state in America." He called on retirees to donate their time and talent to educational work. And he chided Minnesota business people for not doing more for the university. "Many have contributed -- but compared with other states, it's not impressive. This business community has got to get going. We have a lot more ability to support this institution than we have so far shown."
If that message is linked in memory to the Wallin name on the Medical Biosciences Building, more's the better.
