Warren Madden

Warren Madden died in his sleep on Tuesday 6 October 2026 at his home in Ames, Iowa. He was 87. The date comes from his family's obituary, published through Grandon Funeral and Cremation Care; an early Ames Voice report gave Wednesday 7 October. No cause of death was given beyond the family's statement that he died in his sleep.

His death was reported by Ames Voice and the Iowa State Daily, and on 20 October 2026 by The Des Moines Register, which called him one of Iowa State's most revered leaders. He was survived by his wife, Beverly; his sons Walt, of Aspen, Colorado, and Bill, of Delray Beach, Florida; his brother Jim; his sister Margaret; and his stepbrother Andrew Kull. His family wrote that their lives were quieter without his familiar whistling. A celebration of life was scheduled for 28 October 2026 at the Iowa State Memorial Union, from 4 to 7 pm, and the family asked for donations to the Iowa State Foundation Warren Madden Memorial in place of flowers.

Warren R. Madden was born on 27 June 1939 and grew up in Glen Ellyn, a suburb west of Chicago, Illinois. In high school he met Beverly Schlacks, who became his wife.

He enrolled at Iowa State University in 1957 to study engineering, and Beverly followed him to Ames the next year. Both were active in Greek life, and he became president of his fraternity, Pi Kappa Phi. The couple married in 1960 as Beverly was starting graduate school. He graduated in industrial engineering in 1961 (some news reports give 1960), then moved with Beverly to Minneapolis, where he worked for the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, now 3M, as an engineer and manager. During those years he completed an MBA at the University of Chicago.

Madden returned to Iowa State in 1966 as the university's first contracts and grants officer, expecting to stay for a couple of years. He never left. By 1970 he had been named assistant vice president and treasurer, and he later became associate vice president. In 1984 he was appointed vice president for business and finance, and he finished his career as the university's first senior vice president for business and finance, retiring in 2016 after fifty years of service under seven presidents.

His responsibilities included payroll, accounting, investments, human resources, facilities planning and management, purchasing, public safety and risk management, and he oversaw University Museums, Reiman Gardens, the Iowa State Center and WOI Radio and Television. According to the Iowa Board of Regents, he helped develop the legal structure that gave the board capital bonding authority in the 1970s, which made it possible to build for rising enrollment and research.

Nearly every campus building was built or renovated during his career, as campus facilities grew from about 4 million to more than 14.3 million square feet, and historic buildings such as Parks Library, Catt Hall, the Lab of Mechanics, the Campanile, Morrill Hall and Beardshear Hall were renovated for modern use. He helped bring Hilton Coliseum, Stephens Auditorium and the rest of the Iowa State Center to life, and played a part in the ISU Research Park, Reiman Gardens and the Highway 30 and University Boulevard corridor, including the Gateway Hotel and the Green Hills retirement community. After the floods of 1993, 2008 and 2010 he coordinated the university's recovery and flood mitigation work. Over his tenure enrollment more than doubled and the budget grew to more than 1.4 billion dollars. He was proudest that this growth came while keeping central campus open and green, and in 1999 the American Society of Landscape Architects named it one of three university campuses embodying the heart and soul of their institutions.

After retiring he stayed involved with the ISU Research Park, serving as its interim president in 2019 and remaining on its board.

Madden worked to build a close relationship between the university and the city of Ames. He was instrumental in setting up CyRide, the transit system run jointly by the city and the university, and took part in creating the Ames/ISU Ice Arena and several city parks on university land. He chaired the Ames Chamber of Commerce and the Ames Economic Development Commission, helped launch the Ames Main Street Farmers' Market, and served the ISU Alumni Association, the ISU Foundation, United Way of Story County, the Mary Greeley Foundation and the Ames Transit Board. He was also one of the volunteers who founded the local news site Ames Voice and one of its major financial supporters.

He and Beverly had two sons, Walt and Bill. In 2019 the couple moved to Green Hills, the retirement community he had helped plan in the 1980s. Friends remembered him as easy-going, kind and modest about what he called a lifetime of plugging away to make Ames and Iowa State better.

In September 2024 the Iowa Board of Regents approved renaming Iowa State's Administrative Services Building the Warren Madden Building, and the renovated building was dedicated with the Madden family on 19 September 2025. At the time the university summed up his approach in a set of lessons: listen first, respect everyone involved, and keep history and the big picture in view even when working on the smallest details.

His honours included the Order of the Knoll Faculty and Staff Award, which he shared with Beverly, the Iowa State Alumni Medal and the title of Ames Citizen of the Year in 2013. The campus he helped build, with its renovated historic halls and preserved central lawns, remains his most visible legacy.