Awards

Chancellor and Provost Medallion - 1996

IU Northwest Chancellor's Medallion

Gary, Indiana

Presenter: Hilda Richards

About The John W. Anderson Foundation

The John W. Anderson Foundation is an independent foundation affiliated with Grant Center in Valparaiso, IN. Indiana University Northwest dedicated the Library Conference Center as the John W. Anderson Library Conference Center in 2011 as recognition for the many contributions made by the late John W. Anderson, a prolific inventor and successful Northwest Indiana businessman, and the Anderson Foundation, which he established in 1967 to support charitable organizations and higher education.

Anderson was known for his high degree of civic engagement in Northwest Indiana, a legacy that his Foundation has carried forward to the present day. He sponsored an entire league of Little League baseball teams, was a National Director of the Boys’ Clubs of America, and his legacy of support for higher learning has helped Indiana University and its students achieve optimal success.

He founded The Anderson Company (ANCO), a manufacturer of automobile accessories, in South Bend, Ind. in 1918. In 1923, he relocated to Gary, Ind., where ANCO employed a significant number of people in the production of refillable windshield wiper blades, Anderson’s signature invention. During World War II, Anderson co-founded the Automotive Council for War Production in Detroit. He received the Freedom Foundation Award in 1950 and the Jefferson Medal of the New Jersey Patent Law Association in 1954, and he was posthumously inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1972.