Irving Weber
A 1997 Press-Citizen article on the death of Iowa City historian Irving B. Weber said that he “lived the history he told.”
A native of Iowa City, he attended local schools, graduating from City High in 1918. At the University of Iowa, he became an All-American swimmer, graduating in 1922.
He spent the next 48 years in the ice cream and dairy business, a time when he helped organize the Quality Chek’d Dairy Association and served as its president from 1944 to 1966. His work there still resonates in the industry today with the Irving B. Weber Distinguished Award for Quality Excellence, which is presented to dairies meeting quality standards.
Weber made his mark, however, in Iowa City itself by detailing its history in weekly columns in the Press-Citizen from 1973 until his death in 1997. Those columns eventually were collected into a series of books, “Irving Weber’s Iowa City,” with proceeds from the sales benefiting the Iowa City Host Noon Lions Club, a group he was a member of since 1931. He was named Iowa City’s official historian in 1989.
In addition, he also was active in local education, serving five years on the Iowa City School Board, including a stint as its president from 1952 to 1953.
Today, Weber’s legacy lives on. A statue of Weber stands at Iowa Avenue and Linn Street. In 1993, the Iowa City School District named its new elementary school on Rohret Road after him. It was an honor he took seriously, visiting the school frequently and ringing a bell to start each assembly, a 1997 Press-Citizen article about his death said. In addition, Iowa City schools host an ice cream social before the start of every new school year, and the city hosts its Irving Weber Days Ice Cream Social every May.