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Through leadership and generosity, former farm boy C.Y. Stephens proved that one person can make a profound difference on a college campus. The 2025 book, A Giving Man from author Steven L. Jones, details Stephens’ life from Georgia to Iowa to Maryland where he built a dairy empire. Recruited by his old college friend “Jimmy” Hilton, Stephens led the unprecedented national fund-raising campaign to build the Iowa State Center in the 1960s. He made possible the construction of the Center that not only changed the face of Iowa State it changed the image of the university. The book was commissioned by Ames, Iowa residents Murray and Valerie Wise and supported by the Wise Family Foundation.Steven L. Jones is an Iowa writer who has authored three books. His first two were for young readers, Football’s Fallen Hero—The Jack Trice Story (2000) and The Red Tails: World War II’s Tuskegee Airmen (2001), both published by Perfection Learning Corp. His third book, A Giving Man—The Story of C.Y. Stephens (2025), was published by Iowa State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Steve has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Iowa State and a master’s degree in communications from the University of Northern Iowa. He is now writing a book-length history of his family’s experiences leading up to and during World War II and writes articles for publications. Steve and his wife, Diane, live on a Boone County acreage and chase eight grandchildren.
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