Many people in the Midwest are familiar with the Bohannon family. In recent years, it has been one of the most recognizable basketball names, particularly in college hoops. The four brothers played basketball at the University of Iowa, University of Wisconsin, and University of Northern Iowa, following in the athletic footsteps of their father, Gordy Bohannon, who was starting quarterback for the Iowa Hawkeyes. The family, however, also has significant talents extending beyond the hardwood.
In the years since his life in basketball ended, Zach Bohannon has demonstrated his tremendous skills off the court. He recently ascended to the role of Eastern Iowa Market President at First Interstate Bank, an institution known to have community service as a core value. This ascension happened quickly, having been recruited in 2023 to be the Cedar Rapids Market President and quickly rising to his current role. There, he provides leadership to both the Iowa City and Cedar Rapids markets by directly managing the entire commercial lending team, while providing leadership and support for their other departments, including retail, treasury management, and wealth.
Basketball has not been completely left behind for Zach. He likes to joke with people that if he would have been taller, athletic, and more skilled, he would have made the NBA. On the court, he notes that he developed intangible characteristics, including his enthusiasm, attitude, discipline, hard work, and being a team player. Those were contributing factors in his success in college basketball and have directly contributed to his success off the court.
Zach is also passionate about philanthropy and enjoys having a role in fundraising. In fact, he likes to joke that you can’t spell “fundraising” without “fun.” In Iowa, he has led four capital campaign building projects: $21 million for the Marion YMCA, $5 million for the African American Museum of Iowa, $8 million for the St. Joseph Catholic Church in Marion, and $10 million for the Cedar Valley Humane Society. Zach believes that his ability to evolve to constantly changing fundraising environments to get to a successful end goal will be the greatest asset he can bring to the Hoover Presidential Foundation Board of Trustees and is excited to play a part as we approach a pivotal crossroads in the next direction of our story.
He is looking forward to the completion of the renovation of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum. Given that a renovation has not happened in over three decades, it will soon have an exciting role in step with the expectations of today’s museum goers, as it strives to inspire the current and future generations to not only advocate for positive change in their own communities but also lead a life of honesty and generosity.
His appreciation of the Hoover story started young. As a child, he suffered from a speech impediment and had to attend speech sessions multiple times per week right when he started elementary school. His dad recognized his distress on his way to school in large part due to knowing that kids were making fun of him. One day, his dad told him, “You know, Zach, even Presidents of the United States attend speech classes.” This both dissolved his fear of going to speech classes and began his passion for presidents. A year later, he was excited to learn that his class would be taking a field trip to the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, which ultimately inspired him to live a life of service that he continues to strive to fulfill to this day.
You could say that Zach’s journey to his new role at the Foundation started in college. He was captain of the University of Wisconsin basketball team, when they made the 2014 NCAA Tournament Final Four in Dallas, Texas. There, he met President George W. Bush. While working in Iowa a few years later, he saw an advertisement for our annual Celebration Banquet featuring our 43rd President and immediately registered for the event. He was even more excited to attend the banquet the following year to listen to Condoleezza Rice talk geopolitics, considering that he was serving as an intelligence officer in the Air National Guard and still does today. He was in awe of all the extraordinary individuals who exuded so much passion for Herbert Hoover, including Herbert Hoover’s great-granddaughter Margaret Hoover, who emceed both events.
Zach admires much about Herbert Hoover. He lived the American dream: rising from being orphaned to having massive success as a mining engineer, humanitarian, and statesman. However, upon rising to the presidency, he met the most unfortunate luck with his time in office corresponding with the start of the Great Depression. Hoover did so much good before and after his presidency, yet most of the public deemed him a failure due to his presidency alone and ignore the rest of his life of selfless service.
As for the Hoover Campus, the Birthplace Cottage is his favorite spot, because without that, none of the rest would exist.