The names Eichacker and Harper are well known in Tippie College of Business circles. 

Lois Eichacker Jr. (BBA85) serves on the Tippie Advisory Board and is a valued supporter of the Tippie Gateway Program. Her mother, Lois Harper Eichacker, was honored in 1999 with a University of Iowa Distinguished Alumni Award for Service. Father George Eichacker (BA51/MA52) holds Iowa business degrees in economics and accounting, and his son Milton Eichacker (BA85/JD89) took a business law class at Tippie and met his future wife, Julie Flack Eichacker (BBA86), on campus. 

What some may not know, however, is how interwoven the family’s history is with the civil rights movement at the University of Iowa. 

The story starts with family matriarch Virginia Harper. There were only 20 Black women enrolled at Iowa in 1946, and Harper was one of five who lived on campus in Currier Hall, unfortunately incurring harsh discrimination during its integration.

“We knew that we got extra attention because we were Black,” said Harper, in a 1992 Daily Iowan interview, recalling her time as part of what is now known as the “Currier Five.” 

These experiences propelled her into a lengthy career fighting racial injustice and prejudice with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). 

She wasn’t alone. 

Many individuals in the Harper- Eichacker family dedicated their lives to ensure equity and justice for all Iowans, and their efforts are one reason they were named the 2024 University of Iowa Family Spirit Award recipients. 

“It’s an incredible honor for our family,” said Eichacker Jr., who is Virginia’s niece. “The university and the state have meant so much to so many family members. We’re filled with such gratitude and appreciation.” 

First awarded in 2018, the Family Spirit Award recognizes a family—spanning at least three generations of UI graduates—that has substantially benefited from and continues to advocate for the university, as well as contributes toward bettering the state of Iowa and its communities. The Eichacker-Harper family was honored at the Iowa vs. Troy football game last September. 

Even before Virginia Harper’s brave stand against segregation at Currier Hall, the family was leaving its imprint on the university. 

In 1866 a couple named Rufus and Matilda Dandridge left the Kentucky and Tennessee cotton and tobacco plantations, where they had been enslaved, and migrated to Keokuk, Iowa. 

By the late 1910s, two of the Dandridges’ grandchildren— Naomi Harper Jordan (BA1922) and Harry Dandridge Harper— were the first in their family to attend college and studied at Iowa. Serving as a doctor for more than 50 years in Fort Madison, Iowa, Harry—who was a classmate and friend of Iowa football icon Duke Slater (LLB1928)—played a central role in shaping Iowa’s civil rights movement as president of the Fort Madison NAACP and chair of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission. 

“He was a civil rights pioneer in Iowa,” said Harry’s grandson Milton. “He instilled in all of us the belief that everyone—regardless of race—deserves respect, and that advocating for racial justice is essential. He did so much for Fort Madison and the state of Iowa.” 

Lois Harper Eichacker wrote about the family’s experiences in a chapter of Invisible Hawkeyes— a book examining influential African-Americans at Iowa during the Civil Rights era. She also was the first African-American president of the UI Alumni Association’s Board of Directors, the precursor to today’s UI Center for Advancement. 

Lois Eichacker Jr., who lives in Chicago where she is vice president for the software and data company Supplier.io, said the University of Iowa and Iowa City are almost part of the family DNA at this point. 

“When we were kids, Iowa City was a central gathering place for us to meet and get to know so many successful Black professionals and role models, and those experiences really tie into why I support the Tippie Gateway Program,” she said. “Maintaining the connection to the state is important since we all grew up there. It was such a transformative time in our lives.

While many of the Harper- Eichacker family are now succeeding beyond the Hawkeye state, family members say they know that prior generations would be grateful to know their legacies continue to live on through tributes like the UI Family Spirit Award. 

Virginia Eichacker (BA97/ JD92), Virgina Harper’s niece and namesake said, “I know that there are a lot of Hawkeyes above smiling down on us right now.” 

This article appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of Tippie Magazine.