Charles and Judy Iager Fulton MD
The Iagers spent many days together on the Campus Farm as students, and now, more than 50 years later, they feel it’s their turn to give back and preserve their cherished farm.
Charlie Iager, a 1965 alumnus, and his wife, Judy Iager, a 1966 alumna, recently contributed $250,000 to the Campus Farm revitalization effort, the farm’s first renovation in nearly 50 years. The targeted $6 million project, led by the agricultural college, will replace a parking area in the farm’s center with a covered livestock pen for student and visitor observation and add classroom and viewing areas in a teaching pavilion.
“We wanted to make sure that we’d give all the help we can to keep agriculture on campus,” Judy Iager said.
Both from Howard County, the couple attended high school together, dated and eventually carried that relationship into their years at this university. Charlie Iager, then a dairy production major, often spent his time roaming the farmland and managing the cattle. Judy Iager, then a business education major and former city girl, acquired a love for farm animals after moving to Howard County, and she enjoyed spending time on the Campus Farm with her future husband.
In the late ’40s and early ’50s, Charlie Iager knew he wanted to attend this university after being involved with the state’s 4-H program, visiting the campus with his father for boxing matches in Ritchie Coliseum and attending the Orange Bowl. The then-larger Campus Farm was just a familiar added bonus.
“I figured I was going to the University of Maryland because it was where I felt at home and comfortable,” he said.
Charlie Iager kept busy as a member of the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity, the dairy judging team and the livestock judging team. But on the weekends, he went home to wake up early and work on his family’s farm, Maple Lawn Farms. This farm was created in 1839 on 108 acres of land, and it has been passed down from generation to generation, eventually accumulating 1,000 acres.
It wasn’t always easy for a farm boy to leave the campus every weekend to go home and work, Judy Iager said, so keeping up with schoolwork and activities was sometimes a challenge. But there was always an outlet for relaxation and comfort.
“He felt comfortable down there because of the animals,” she said. Even in times of stress, coming to the farm was a “home away from home type of thing.”
With the Iagers’ contribution, along with the plans of Cheng-i Wei, agricultural college dean, to match the amount donated for the project, the revitalization efforts are well underway, said Crystal Caldwell, the farm’s coordinator. The project has raised about 18 percent of its target of $6 million.
Plans to revitalize the farm started in 2011, after the animal and avian sciences department finished its annual external review, said Brian Magness, director and development officer for the agricultural college.
The Campus Farm was the “jewel of the department,” Cadwell said, adding that renovations would “make the farm a better place for teaching.”
Magness called the farm a touchstone for the Iagers, who hope to see continued success for the agricultural program. The couple started a scholarship fund in 2007 for students in the animal and avian sciences department. Their long-term family involvement in the state’s 4-H program has also led to Charlie Iager’s appointment as chairman of the program’s board of directors and the start of its Maryland 4-H scholarship.
Reminiscing about the days when the university was solely an agricultural college and their frequent participation in Ag Day — now known as Maryland Day — the Iagers recalled their excitement at exploring and participating in university events. And with the growing enrollment of agriculture students, the couple sees an even greater need to help preserve and improve the program they always believed in.
“Our hope is that [the agriculture program] will keep on going and it will be a nice home away from home for the students,” Judy Iager said. “Things will just keep getting better and better.”
