Lake Doctor | A Lilly Center for Lakes and Streams Podcast

Building a Legacy: The Origin Story of the Lilly Center for Lakes & Streams

• Lilly Center for Lakes & Streams

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What transforms an ordinary community into a beacon of environmental stewardship and research? This episode features an inspiring conversation with the visionary founders of the Lilly Center for Lakes & Streams: Dr. Ron Manahan, Dr. Frank Levinson, and Suzie Light. As they share their personal journeys, you'll discover how a shared vision and a deep commitment to the environment have united them to address critical water quality issues in Kosciusko County. Dr. Manahan's unexpected journey from history student to environmental advocate, Suzie Light's impactful community work, and Dr. Levinson's Silicon Valley successes all converge to create a powerful narrative of change and collaboration.

Our founders reflect on the crucial gaps they identified in local lake and stream research, sparking the creation of the Lilly Center. You'll hear about Frank's pivotal experiences with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and how these fueled his desire to give back to his cherished Lake Wawasee. When he met Suzie, it was the beginning of a partnership that would transcend traditional philanthropy, focusing instead on long-term environmental impact. Their collaboration with Grace College leaders underscores the transformative power of marrying community passion with academic rigor, laying a strong foundation for the Lilly Center's mission.

The journey of integrating environmental education into Grace College is a testament to the power of stewardship and a biblical worldview. With support from dedicated figures like Dr. Manahan, the college's program evolved to emphasize environmental ethics, historical connections, and practical stewardship. As our founders recount their stories, they highlight the significance of focusing on county-specific issues and the essential role of partnerships. The legacy of the Lilly Center is a shared commitment to preserving the natural world, ensuring a sustainable future through education, research, and a collaborative community effort.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to the Lake Doctor podcast. I'm your host, susie Light. I get to share some stories and talk about our beautiful lakes with my friend, dr Nate Bosch. Nate, you received your degree, your doctorate degree, in limnology from the University of Michigan. Is that correct?

Speaker 2:

That's right, Susie. Unlike oceanography, limnology is the study of freshwater aquatic systems. Freshwater aquatic systems. On this podcast, we're going to dive into lake science. We're going to meet some folks who are passionate about our lakes just like we are, and we're going to have some fun together.

Speaker 1:

Visit lakesgraceedu to learn more about the topics of today's episode and to support the Lilly Center work.

Speaker 2:

In today's episode we have our founders, dr Frank Levinson, dr Ron Manahan and Susie Light as the three folks who came together with the initial idea to start what's now the Lilly Center for the Lake Doctor podcast. It's going to be a little different today because I'm going to be asking the questions, because we have our founders here surrounding me. I'm so excited. These are the folks that helped get the Lilly Center up off the ground, and Susie, who normally co-hosts with me, is one of those founders, and so she's going to just be able to ask questions. How does it feel on the other side?

Speaker 1:

You're turning the tables.

Speaker 2:

Yes, turning the tables, Exactly. So let's start with each of you introducing yourself and a little bit of your unique experience that brought you around the table to helping the Lilly Center get started. So, dr Manahan, why don't we start with you?

Speaker 3:

Sure I. In going through high school I found history about as boring as anything in my life and all I remember is people saying remember this year, remember that year, remember those years. And I made a commitment to myself I'd never go into history. Only, that was then.

Speaker 1:

So, dr Manahan, we're going to talk about the history of the founding of the Lilly Center. Don't tell us the history's boring Well here's what happened to me.

Speaker 3:

A couple of things happened that were important to me personally. One was part of my schooling was done at a campus that had international faculty, and some of them were historians and they came from excellent places and all of that and what I learned was that history was alive. Okay, that's one thing. The other thing I learned was that I was drawn to ancient history, so I began by studying ancient languages, and those ancient languages led to ancient people groups, and so when it came to my dissertation, that dissertation reflected my journey. So that's one piece of it. The other one is that I had taught at Asobel Institute. I was there, I guess, four winters and enjoyed that a lot and gave me a chance to think in light of scripture. So what does this mean? Sort of thing. So that became part of my life.

Speaker 2:

And then coming to Grace College as an Old Testament professor.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and so I taught that.

Speaker 2:

And when did you become president, then, of Grace College?

Speaker 3:

It was in 94, and then I did 20 years as president, and then I did 20 years as president, and then I stayed on a couple of years, bill had asked me to do that Cool.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, Rod. Let's move on here to Susie. Tell us a little bit about yourself and some of the experience and expertise that you brought into the start of the Lilly Center experience and expertise that you brought into the start of the Lilly Center.

Speaker 1:

Well, I was at the Kosciuszko County Community Foundation, dr Manahan. I started a year before you became president at Grace College, working for the community foundation. I remember attending your inauguration as a community foundation representative, my goodness. And then Dr Manahan ended up serving on the board of the Community Foundation. So I was there for 27 years, had a full-time job, two kiddos at home went back to college as an adult, met a lot of wonderful donors, people who wanted to make a difference in our community. You know, wherever your listeners are listening to us, they are served by a community foundation and that's a pretty exciting opportunity for people who want to make a difference in where where they live. I retired June of 2020. And Nate was a very smart gentleman who said Susie, when you retire, would you consider coming to volunteer at the Lilly Center? And I said yes, because we were part of the birthing of the Lilly Center.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so exciting. I just love being here with all three of you. And then we have Dr Frank Levinson. So, Frank, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Speaker 4:

Well, ron and I got our PhD about the same time. I got mine in 1980, but it was in astronomy, of all things, and my family had been coming up to the lake now for about 100 years. We've had a cottage on Wawasee. So when it's passed from my grandfather to my dad, to me, to my son, and he has children now that are turning into adults so many generations One of the things that's in my history was. So when I got my PhD, I graduated and very quickly needed to have a job. Astronomy's not one of those places where there's a lot of jobs, so I went to work in Silicon Valley, eventually doing fiber optics and communications and things like that, started a company. Um, standard Silicon Valley story, but but it was, it was. Uh, yeah, it was, it was. It was foundational.

Speaker 4:

How to, how to start things was was something that that, uh, that I had encountered before.

Speaker 2:

So so talk a little bit more, Frank, about the, the history with the lake. What sort of draws you to the lakes? You you live in California and what draws you all the way over here to northern Indiana, to Lake Wawasee and and the other beautiful lakes in our county?

Speaker 4:

well it's. It's been a central place for our families, extended families, you know, as I said, for 100 years, and it really is that today We've had. We have between my wife and I. We have five children. All of them are married. We have six grandchildren. In the last 10 days all of them were at the house here in Kosciuszko County on Wawasee, and it's just a place where that's possible. The cottage, the house we used to have. We eventually, you know, we built a new one, but we built it in such a way that it could really have a lot of people and sharing things and making meals together and swimming across the lake together, as I did yesterday with my granddaughter and my two daughters.

Speaker 4:

So it's a mile across, so it took us some time, but it's yeah. There's just a lot of family building that can go on when you're. It's a place where you can patiently talk about things.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's a cool way to describe it. Now, thinking back to 2007, when the Lilly Center first got started, when it was birthed, as Susie just said, how did you identify there being a gap in research related to our lakes? How did that come to your mind initially?

Speaker 4:

Well, let me tell the story just a little longer.

Speaker 4:

Okay, I'll try to not to make it too long. I know how these things go. We had started this company and it had done well and had an IPO and so on. So we had means to do philanthropic things and it never occurred to us to what you know how big of a boat could we get. That just wasn't one of our agenda items. And the head of the Smithsonian, the secretary who's literally he's called the secretary of the Smithsonian it's a secretary-level position On his board of directors is the head of the Supreme Court for example, which I don't think people know, and he called.

Speaker 4:

He sent a letter and said would you like to? I'm going to be in your area, could we talk? And he thought, well, maybe he'd get behind the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory because I had astronomy and we talked. I said, no, I want to talk about biology. I think this is the century of biology we're moving into here. This was around 2000. And he says well, we've got a Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute down in Panama and I became engaged with a group there that was looking at forests and had been taking forest data for about 25 years 20 years at the time and they took plots of land 50 hectares, which is about 125 acres, and they census every tree down to one centimeter and in the tropics it's 300,000 or 400,000 trees. It's very labor-intensive, but the data they were collecting was large and where I got my PhD in astronomy, they took their first glass plate picture of the stars in 1883. And they built up this plate collection.

Speaker 4:

And they can now do it, get the data better with satellites and so on, but there's no data that they can collect with the very best satellite that tells them what the light looked like in 1883. Either they collected that data back then or they didn't. And the same thing was true with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. They had this tree data and it was growing. And in 2005, before the start of the Lilly Center, I got together with the founders and I said what you've been doing now 25 years, because they took the first plot in 1980. I said what are you going to do for the next 25 years? And they said oh well, we're going to do more and do it better. I said we need a plan. Let's talk about how we and today. They had 14 plots at the time. Today it's over 80. They didn't have open data. Today they do. They didn't have DNA barcoding and all sorts of background data on the plots and cooperation with other countries. It was very, you know they did it in the tropics, but it was really US-run. Today, other big countries, emerging countries in the world, have a say in it. So I had some experience and again, their goal was to take these huge data sets. You know, a third of the land on Earth is forests of the land stuff, and so to study that where all the carbon sink was and so on, is important.

Speaker 4:

And I looked at the water that I was sailing on and that I'd swimming in and so on, and it just wasn't the same as when I was a kid and I thought, wow, how do we talk about this? And I came down to see Susie and said do you want to do something different than just hand out scholarships? Could we go do something really crazy? And she said we would love it. And I didn't expect the enthusiasm it's a sidebar, but boy, she just did it right away and it was so interesting. And then she said we need to go over and talk to Ron Manahan it's the only college in the county and Ron right away said yeah, this is something he says. We've got to find the right guy. It's you. But right away we started thinking about how is this coming together as people? And it wasn't. It's always about the water and this and that and the lakes and streams, but it starts with people.

Speaker 4:

Susie was there and Ron was there and I just felt these were people. These were folks that I Even though we made very different points of view from very different locations and we would do something great, and especially with their leadership. So it was an easy thing to do.

Speaker 2:

And let's bring Susie in. So that's Frank's perspective on kind of how things got started. Would love to hear your perspective from your vantage point as well.

Speaker 1:

Well, I vividly remember the day that I received a phone call from a young man who said I'm interested in a project. I'd like to speak with you about it over lunch. Can we arrange a time? And so I said sure. And I did something I don't usually do I got in a car with a stranger. We went to a lunch and Frank shared with me his vision. He said I want to do water has changed. I mean, you said exactly that day what you said today. The water is different now than it was when I was a kid. So I want to do something to impact water.

Speaker 2:

So I want to do something to impact water.

Speaker 1:

You must have had your lens from the Panama group with you when you said I want to do something that is data driven, educational and replicable, so that we can do something here that will help people in Chesapeake Bay someday, and I said, yes, yes, of course we can do that. What you don't know, frank, is that I went back to the office and went how are we going to do this? Luckily, dr Manahan was serving on the board of the Community Foundation and, after exploring all of the entities in our community that were working on water, who wanted to do more of what they were currently doing, not something different, not especially data-driven, not especially educational, and certainly it could be replicated, but not on the scale. You were thinking Dr man, to me, suzy, in his quiet voice suzy, grace, college wants to help. And then he shared with me, um, the work that he had done in asabo asabo, environment asabo I never get that word pronounced correctly Asable Okay, and we ran with it Like way to go.

Speaker 2:

Wow, all right, let's bring you back to the conversation a little bit, ron. So, thinking back, you were already teaching an environmental ethics class at Grace College before I started, before we had the Lilly Center there, before we had an environmental program. Why did you think that that was an important class to be teaching at Grace College?

Speaker 3:

Because of my experience in learning about the ancient world, and there was a period in history, at least in my history, where there was environmental interest, but it didn't seem to be channeled in any particular way, and what I think is there were people that had general interest in it, but what would you do, that sort of thing? And so I thought it was important that students think about those things, and that probably is what drove me to do that. I taught lots of ancient history, just went to all the people groups, but Sumerian culture is about 6,000 years and it's before then too, but there's a good deal known about it. And then that region of the world has a lot of interactions, some of which relate to the Mediterranean world, and that still is the case. But even the Roman Empire much later had a massive east-west road constructed that reached 2200 miles, and you think of those days.

Speaker 3:

I was at Asobel. They had asked me, because of my background, to maybe talk some to students about connections between the ancient world and all this, between the ancient world and all this, and so that became part of my life and I couldn't shake that from what I'd seen about environmental issues and health or loss of health in the surrounding, and I think that that probably drove me onward and I've thought if I'd not been able to do what I did at Grace, I might not have stayed at Grace. I don't know, there are opportunities that go elsewhere, but I wasn't drawn to that because there were things here that seemed to me to matter.

Speaker 1:

Stewardship yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, when we at Grace, when we come at the world from a biblical worldview and we see that God made the world around us and pretty clearly already in Genesis 1 and 2, told us that we as humans are supposed to take care of that world.

Speaker 3:

We have care.

Speaker 2:

There's a strong justification for why we should be doing these environmental pursuits locally.

Speaker 3:

I just think there's a lot more said about environmental issues than we imagine.

Speaker 2:

So that foundation brought Grace College to the table in an exciting way to say yeah this is something we believe in and we've already been laying some of the foundation work of on our campus and we want to take it to the next level.

Speaker 3:

Well, and I remember this, Frank, when we were together, that first meeting, you asked me a question did I know anyone in that field? A question did I know anyone in that field? And I knew from a sabo. I knew about Caldoette and that led to your name. And I remember a day two of us from Greece flew into Metro Airport and Dave Mann was there, a specialist same field from Alabama, and they all flew into Metro Airport and had a meeting and in the process of that discussion I'm sure I just said we don't have people in our world at Grace who can even imagine doing that. There's a fellow that came here and he spoke highly of you and I knew about University of Michigan because family connections to it, and that was the name that I tucked away. And when I met you first time, Nate, I said this is the one, this is the one, this is the one. And I remember you said you had something like golden handcuffs with the university. You were trying to wrap up the project, I think on Lake.

Speaker 2:

Erie, yeah, we had a big National Science Foundation project we were working on.

Speaker 3:

And you said I'd like to come, but I can't come right now. And I said, well, it's worth waiting for the best. So I said, well, how soon could you come? And you gave whatever period it was and you came.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and little did I know. As a college student at a small Christian college, wanting to take some more advanced environmental classes, I went up to Au Sable Environmental Institute one summer and took environmental chemistry and limnology, and limnology really sparked an interest for me, which is then what I pursued getting my PhD from University of Michigan and what's been really beneficial here than working for the Lilly Center for Lakes and Streams.

Speaker 2:

But little did I know that some of the connections I was making back there at Au Sable would end up landing me a job at Grace.

Speaker 3:

College eventually.

Speaker 2:

So pretty cool. All right, let's switch back to thank you, Ron. Let's switch back to Frank. So, in this initial idea of starting this research center focused on lakes and streams, why Kosciuszko County? Why have a geographic focus of just a county?

Speaker 4:

in starting this. Well, as I said earlier, first of all, it's where I live and grew up in the summer, so it was personal, and I've seen how small colleges can make a difference again, and part of the thing that you want to do in any project is to not make it so big that it, you know it starts off intractable. And so I think you know, both Susie and I tried to make sure there was some focus, that what we had in mind could scale to the group here, and also that there was room left for Grace to innovate inside the idea, not just say, well, we'll do it, here's the money. Go do what we tell you.

Speaker 4:

It can't work that way right. It's gotta be a partnership and it's not just a partnership, of course, with the founders. As you know for sure, there's so many others that have contributed it.

Speaker 2:

It was intentional to set up the Lilly. Center for Lakes and Streams with a county reach.

Speaker 4:

One thing about environment is like astronomy it's something that happens over decades, and you need a host for data collection if you're going to do things like that, or data collection that's driven towards change, where they, too, have long horizons. Of course, you have a four-year horizon for the student that enters and leaves four years later. But Grace has a huge history and it has, in all of its people that have attended here and alumni and benefactors and so on, there's this sense of long-term purpose. So you need to engage with something like that, even if it's a limited size or geography, because the data you're collecting you're not going to see anything in one year, or even three or four or five sometimes. You're not going to see anything in one year, or even three or four or five sometimes. So you need a host, an anchoring partner that has that long-term vision and, honestly, longer than Ron and I, or Ron and I and Susan, or even you, pup.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So let me ask a question of each of you now. So each of you are part of what we call our founder circle, which is open to the 21st, folks who raise their hand and say we believe in what the Lilly Center is doing long-term for our lakes and streams and want to be a long-term partner through our estate giving to that end. And what I'd love to hear from each of you is why is that important for the Lakes to be part of your legacy? Looking forward and I guess we'll go in the same order. I've been asking some of the other questions, so we'll start with you, Ron.

Speaker 3:

I very much am drawn to things that give evidence of spreading, not only in lakes and streams but spreading in other ways, and I think that is part of what's happening. I just think that those things matter because this is replicable in a host of things that humanity does, and I think that's a wonderful thing. I do and so I know. When we gave money, I said, well, I want to give to lakes and streams, and we both made it clear If it isn't going to lakes and streams, then we're out Susie.

Speaker 2:

how about you?

Speaker 1:

Nate, you and the Lilly Center have been part of my journey as a successful person at the Community Foundation. There are a lot of opportunities to give charitably, but to look at an organization that is not only making a difference in the environment but making a difference in the lives of the students that you're teaching, who may go into environmental sciences but may go into environmental law or marketing. Or people who are listening to our podcast who now can talk intelligently about zebra muscles it is a passion that I have, and Steve and I are there for investing our IRAs into. You're the beneficiary of our, not you personally. Lilly's Center for Lakes and Streams is a beneficiary of our IRA because we want to ensure the sustainability of the organization. That has been important to us.

Speaker 2:

Good. Thank you, Frank. How about you thinking of legacy?

Speaker 4:

Beyond everything we've talked about in terms of the science and the taking the data and having this organization here and the support of all the people. Over my life, I've seen the value of diversity of thought, and this is something that many people throughout the county, as you know I think almost every single student in this county has interacted now with the Lilly Center over the last four or five years, and there are people there that speak Spanish at home. There are people there that just moved here and don't know a thing about lakes and streams. There are people of great wealth and of surprising poverty, and yet. So this is one thing that's reached out to all of that and it matters to me. I've said it and maybe you'll get edited out of this darn podcast, who knows? But around this table, it's not likely in all the political voting that will happen in two or three months, that we'll all vote the same. Forget the top stuff, even just the little stuff, whatever.

Speaker 4:

But we agree on this Forget the top stuff, even just the little stuff whatever, but we agree on this and as we come together and agree to do something like this together, that's really powerful and it couldn't have been done. I couldn't probably in some ways be more different than the two of you, but the trust I have with you is absolute in this area, and we need more practice at that, and so many of the things that I want to try to support for the rest of my life are things like that, that honor diversity. And to add one more thing to this, I think and I talked to Bill, the president, previous president and I said how has this affected Grace? And he says we look out, this is our. We always looked in and tended to our gardens and our children, but we look out and it's so healthy to do that, and so to me, it's just one county, but it's so healthy to do that. And so to me, it's just one county, but it's one county and it's really working. And so congratulations to you guys.

Speaker 3:

It really matters to me that we have that you know, frank, I remember this one day we were in the office, we were talking I don't remember what I know. We talked many times. I don't remember what the specific point was we were talking about, but he said to me, you know, he said I don't know that I believe many things, you believe. And I remember I said but Frank, could we still be friends? And again, what?

Speaker 4:

Absolutely. We've been friends for 20 years yeah.

Speaker 3:

I remember that that was great.

Speaker 4:

It's not necessary that we agree on everything. Yeah, you know, it's not necessary to accomplish great things. We just have to have enough full respect to trust.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

And to trust that some of the things we're darn sure we know are probably wrong, and to trust that some of the things we're darn sure we know are probably wrong.

Speaker 1:

One thing we know a healthy lake has diversity of life within it. And so for you to talk about the diversity of thought and how healthy that is. That's a healthy lake.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's. A healthy ecosystem is having a diversity of plants and animals interacting together in the right ways.

Speaker 1:

Happy to interact with you.

Speaker 3:

I've thought about this so much since there was a discussion at the recent gathering on TV St Mary's in Ohio.

Speaker 1:

I mean, that blows my mind and you see what has happened to the population there.

Speaker 2:

So St Mary's was a lake that had a toxic algae bloom and the community has suffered substantially loss of property value, loss of use of the lake yeah yeah, talking to realtors in the area, property values less than 50% of what they were a few years back, before algae toxins started being a problem. The tourism industry decimated.

Speaker 1:

So just think, frank, your initial thought about let's do something to impact water quality that is data-driven, can be replicated and is educational. The others that have invested in you in the Lilly Center for algae toxin research. We're learning so much. Thank you God. Thank you God for bringing these people together and making this difference.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, all right, so let's look ahead now. Uh, so let's think about someone listening in or viewing this podcast and thinking, hey, I wasn't part of that founding group of the lily center, but I'm getting excited about this work that you all are doing. What would be, maybe, one thing that each of you would encourage? Thinking, the next generation of people that are going to influence the Lilly Center for Lakes and Streams what would you encourage them to do?

Speaker 3:

I have to believe that what you're doing with children is a starting point. That is a starting point that, as the child growing up begins to think about those things and they remember experiences. They were there and they had their fish in the water and they did all that. That's one thing I would think about, because it's the beginning of multiplying across generations.

Speaker 2:

So maybe someone volunteering on some of our educational programs or providing some financial support of those things?

Speaker 3:

or even ideas for curriculum ideas. And my thought is, if you get a 10 year old child and they begin to enjoy and see the value of that, that multiplies in life.

Speaker 2:

We call that water literacy and we want to see that next generation of water literate citizens. So, that's really good. How about you, Susie?

Speaker 1:

You know, I often say you do not have to be a Warren Buffett, a Bill Gates or a Frank Levinson who started a company and has significant resources to be philanthropic. So people of all abilities have an opportunity to engage with the Lilly Center. Visit the website. Learn about things that the Lilly Center is doing. Be careful how you fertilize your lawn, you know. Think about making a charitable gift. Think about making a gift of your time. Everyone can participate in this.

Speaker 2:

Good and Frank. How about you and Frank?

Speaker 4:

how about you? Well, I would say, if you're not in Kosciuszko County, think about reaching out to Nate and the team here to find out what you can learn. Maybe you don't have lakes in your county you no doubt have streams, but maybe you have forests or whatever. But if you want to do a project like this, these folks have learned how to do that and how to engage a very broad swath of community beyond taking care of lakes and streams. Yes, they know that. But they've learned something a meta thing above that, which is how to work with everyone in a hundred thousand person county to move the needle. And I'd say, reach out and ask them you know what can you share with us? How can we do something like that here? Because your local community foundation would probably love to engage with you. But you need a plan and you need some Ron Manahans and Susie Lights.

Speaker 2:

And Frank Levinson's too Well. Thank you all for your investment in starting this new center from 2007 and your continued investment with time and talent and treasure, with helping us continue but also challenging the next generation to pick up the baton and continue on with that support and advice. So it's certainly my honor to lead this organization and I appreciate each of you personally. So thank you for your founding work for your founding work.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Lake Doctor podcast. Join us next time. It's bound to be fun.

Speaker 2:

Listening to this podcast is just the first step to making your lake cleaner and healthier. Visit lakesgraceedu for more information about our applied research and discover some tangible ways you can make a difference on your lake as well.

Speaker 1:

We'll see you next time. The Doctor's In.