Meet your neighbor: Lisa Piper

This person has lived in Winfield for 30 years, but, because she worked at the University of Iowa, leaving early and getting home late, people rarely had a chance to get to know her. Lisa Piper recently retired from the U of I and enjoys not having to get up at dawn and not getting home until evening.

Lisa was born in Oskaloosa, Iowa, to Charlie and Eathol Piper. She is the youngest of her six siblings: Carl and Gary Crill, Patty, Bob and Tom Piper, and Kay Stull. Tom and Kay are still living. Kay lives in San Antonio, TX and Tom lives here in Winfield.

Lisa went to school in the Mediapolis school district and graduated from Mediapolis High School. She is a graduate of Colorado State University with a B.S. in Consumer Affairs and a minor in Economics and Business. Before settling in Winfield, Lisa lived in various locations in Colorado, including Colorado Springs, Denver, Fort Collins and Woodland Park.

Her first job out of college was as a national sales trainer in electronics for Sears. The position required traveling to all 50 states and Puerto Rico to train salespeople not to be afraid of technology.

“I can’t say that I was always successful,” admitted Lisa.

Lisa moved to Winfield in 1993 when Sears began to decline, and her position was eliminated.

“I lived with mom until she passed away in 1994,” she said. “I liked Winfield and I had family here (Gary and Tom) so I chose to purchase Mom’s house and stay here. For most of the 30 years I commuted, I was either in a carpool or university vanpool. We rarely had days we couldn’t get to Iowa City due to the weather. Once I began working in the College of Dentistry in 2016, my hours just didn’t conform to vanpool schedules, so I drove the last seven years. “

Over the next 30 years, Lisa held three different positions at the U of I, first in the College of Dentistry where she worked as an administrative assistant in the Oral Pathology Department. In 1996, Lisa transferred to Iowa Women’s Basketball.

“I was hired by Coach Angie Lee and then transitioned with the arrival of Coach Lisa Bluder in 2000,“ she said. ”I loved working with Angie Lee and was hesitant to work with Lisa Bluder.“

She went on to share her experience working with Coach Bluder.

“When she came to the University in 2000, she was so welcoming I felt I was part of her team right away,” Piper said. “We had more good years than bad, and I can’t imagine working for a better coach. Something I admired about her was her ability to be able to change her offenses and defenses to match her current team. Not many coaches out there would have let ‘Caitlin be Caitlin’ but it worked for her. I remember when Sam Logic was a Freshman in 2011 (the first #22-point guard) and Coach Bluder found a new type of offense call ‘Read and React‘ that matched Sam’s abilities. Once Sam graduated and the offense needed to revolve around Megan Gustafson, she changed to the Triangle offense to match Megan’s abilities. Caitlin was perfect for Read and React, so she went back to it.”

Lisa worked in the sports department for 16 years. In 2016, the university went through budget cuts.

“My position was downgraded, so I transferred to the College of Dentistry Student Affairs office and remained there until retirement,” she said. “Had the university not gone through budget cuts, I would have remained at Women’s Basketball. I loved my job. While with Women’s Basketball, I had the opportunity to travel with the team to Big Ten and NCAA tournaments as well as their foreign trips.”

And travel she did! While her Sears job allowed her to explore the U.S., her U of I job took her to several countries that included, Italy, England, Germany, France and more.

“With all the traveling I’ve done, there are still some places I’d like to visit such as Iceland and Ireland.”

While still working for Women’s Basketball, Lisa shared an incident that took place one summer before she left.

“A skinny 6th grader and her parents came for an unofficial visit to meet the coaches and tour the facility after Elite Camp. We had been told by one of Coach Bluder’s friends in Des Moines that the kid was pretty good. The coaches asked me to enter her information into our database of recruits, but she was so young her graduation date wasn’t in the database. I had to call the national office to get them to add the date. The person on the phone told me, ‘You realize that’s a 6th grader, right?’ I said, yes, the coaches say she’s that good … that skinny kid was Caitlin Clark. I left Women’s Basketball before she signed to play at Iowa, so I never had the opportunity to work with her on a regular basis.”

Because the Men’s and Women’s basketball offices were on separate floors until 2011, Lisa said she never had the opportunity to meet Jess Settles.

“I’ve lived in Winfield for 30 years, but hardly know anyone because of working long hours at the U of I. My parents moved to Winfield in 1973 to be closer to the family. Cleda and Gary Crill lived next door. People were friendly, and I appreciated that they stepped up to help my dad when he was diagnosed with cancer. I’m settled here and have thought about moving to a bigger community, but then I think about all the stuff I’d have to move and it’s overwhelming. So, for now, I’ll just stay here. I guess the downs to living in a small town is that you need to drive to get groceries, to events at Hancher, Iowa sporting events, etc.“

“When I left Women’s Basketball, I kept my season tickets (and favorite seats — I sit in the front row above the tunnel). I didn’t keep my Football tickets, they were too expensive and I’d rather watch it on TV. I also have season tickets to the Broadway shows at Hancher.”

Lisa said that before she retired, she looked forward to not having to get up at 4 or 5 a.m. and getting home at 6 p.m. or later.

“My first project was to clean out the attic in my house, but one year later that’s still a work in progress. I’ve also been sorting through photo albums, it seems to be a never-ending process, as I keep finding more and more albums.”

She loves to read and is a member of three books clubs including one at the Winfield Library. She also belongs to the Fireside Winery in Marengo, first on Facebook and now in person, and the Wine Styles club in Coralville.

“So far, none of the dates conflict and I’ve plenty of time to read the books prior to joining the clubs, I tended to read the same authors, and I needed to get out of that rut. I’ve read books that I would never choose and ended up enjoying them,” adding, “I’ve wanted to join a book club for many years, but with the work schedule, I just didn’t want to put pressure on myself to make sure I got a book read on time.”

Lisa also likes to “dig in the dirt” but hates Japanese beetles and pulling weeds. She said that her biggest pet peeve is rude and inconsiderate people. When asked what advice she has for young people she replied, “I have this quote framed on my bedroom wall, so I see it every morning: Stand often in the company of dreamers, they tickle your common sense and believe you can achieve things which are impossible.” In other words, don’t be afraid to follow your dreams.”

Thank you Lisa for sharing your story with us and, after 30 years of scurrying off to work every day, we give you a belated welcome to Winfield and hope you now have time to get to know Winfield and its people better.

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