Ellen Hasse Buchanan
Age: 71. Philanthropist, interviewer whose television programs on the Iowa City Public Library’s cable channel are widely viewed. Educated in radio and television in South Dakota, for more than 20 years she has interviewed guests on “Tell Me Your Story” and “One of a Kind,” earning her the Johnson County Historical Society’s 1995 Irving Weber Award for preserving local history. A longtime former Iowa City Public Library board member and its past chair, she and insurance executive husband, John, aided the library expansion with a $500,000 gift in 2001. The Children’s Reading Room at the library carries her name.