The Herb and Maxine Thyen Family General Endowment was established in 1992 by the six Thyen children as a tribute to their parents. The late Herb Thyen, one of the founders of Kimball International, Inc., also served as executive vice president and secretary of the company. From 1932 to 1950, he was employed by Jasper Wood Products Corporation and was also a director of Spring Valley Bank and Trust. The Thyens’ oldest son, Ron (’59), initiated the endowment. He and his wife, Mary Jane, still live in Jasper, as do John and Marilyn Thyen, Jim and Pat Thyen, and Carol Thyen Haas and her husband, Charles. Mike and Janet Thyen live in nearby Carmel, Indiana. Mary Sue Thyen Gates (’77), and her husband, Tom, live in Wilmette, Illinois.

In times of rising costs and expanding collection, service, and programmatic needs, endowments such as this serve as a lifeline. The Thyen Endowment allows the Libraries to respond to specific and changing research needs, provide online and optical disc databases, and advance emerging disciplines and newly established programs. Two items of note that were recently purchased through general library endowment funds, are a subscription to Jane’s Sentinel Country Risk Assessment, a product including more than 200 reports on U.N. recognized countries, territories, and commonwealths, and the Joint Publications Research Service Reports, 1957-1994, which is an archive of intelligence-related scientific, technical, and social science materials.