Western Gateway Park

Pappajohn Sculpture Park

After my first year of teaching, in the summer of 1997, I returned to Des Moines. I taught in a small town where the graduating class was 37. As much as I love a small town (they are the perfect setting for a Hallmark movie), I am a city girl at heart. The people in the small town were amazing and took me in, but I missed my parents and friends. I also missed Des Moines’ plethora of restaurants, the nightlife (I was 23), and having a Target five minutes from my house. So I moved back to Des Moines to settle in for what would be a very exciting period of growth for our city.

I was working as the Admissions Director at the Catholic high school in town when I met a few families in need of a unique sort of housesitter. These families had middle and high school students; the parents liked to travel during the school year but did not like to take their children out of school. Who better to stay with your kids than a certified 7-12 educator who works at your child’s high school and happens to be single and able to take your kids to all of their many activities? Thus, my side gig as a nanny was born.

One of my regular families lived south of Grand Avenue on Foster Drive. If you have never driven in the south of Grand neighborhoods, you are missing out. There are beautiful, stately old homes with so much character; it is worth the drive. Every time I would drive to their house from work, I passed a house with huge sculptures in the front yard. If I saw this today, I would certainly pull over and take a picture with my phone, but it was 1999 and a smart phone with a camera was not in my future for another ten years or so. My memory is vague but I remember thinking it was a bit strange that this house had an angry bunny sitting on a rock and a giant spider sculpture in the front yard. I knew the people who lived there must be very interesting and when I asked the family I nannied for who owned these, they told me the homeowners were John and Mary Pappajohn.

John Pappajon was born in 1928 in Greece, and he and his mother immigrated to the United States when he was nine months old. They reunited with his father, who had been settled for a few years in Mason City, Iowa. John grew up during the Great Depression and started helping at his family’s corner store when he was five years old. He faced many obstacles as a young immigrant with limited English proficiency; he repeated kindergarten to allow for more language acquisition. His father died when he was 16, and he had to assume responsibility of the store and take care of his mom and younger brothers. It was a difficult time, but it also “hardened John’s resolve to make something of himself and help his brothers succeed (“Remembering John Pappajohn”). Upon receiving an award in 2017, Pappajohn said, “One of my favorite quotes is, ‘Adversity is a blessing in disguise’” (“Remembering John Pappajohn”).

Pappajohn would go on to be a successful businessman, launching Kay Laboratories, investing in a healthcare company called Caremark, which is now part of CVS, and assisting with the growth and development of over 100 startups (“Remembering John Pappajohn”).

John and Mary married in 1961 and began collecting art almost immediately. In 2007, the couple donated 16 pieces from their private collection, the largest single public gift in Des Moines’ history, to the city (Ryan). The sculpture garden at Western Gateway Park was approved by the city council, with the pieces to be owned by the Des Moines Arts Center. The Des Moines Arts Festival, which began east of the river near the Simon Estes Amphitheater in 1998, relocated to Western Gateway Park in 2006, and the sculpture garden is now the center of the festival. The Arts Festival is one of my absolute favorite events in Des Moines, but that will be a separate post after the festival this summer, happening June 27-29. It is a weekend I look forward to every year.

I still hear from the Foster Drive family on Facebook, although many things have changed. They lost their beloved father/husband, Robert Breedlove, in 2005. Mary Pappajohn passed away in 2022, and John in 2023. The greatness these people left behind is known by many. The power of art is difficult to articulate, just like the spirit it takes to rise from poverty and become a self-made man, or the compassion required to leave a legacy of love for generations to come. I am so thankful for the gift this family was in my life, and the Pappajohn’s gift of art for the city of Des Moines to enjoy. See you at this summer’s arts festival!

Works Cited

“Remembering John Pappajohn: An Investor in Iowa.” Iowa Center for Advancement, University of Iowa Center for Advancement, 2025, Remembering John Pappajohn: An Investor in Iowa. Accessed 4 May 2025.

Ryan, DM. “Des Moines Development Forum: Gateway West-Pappajohn Sculpture Park.” UrbanDSM, 4 February 2007, Des Moines Development Forum. Accessed 16 May 2025.