Hixson-Lied College
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Christina M. Hixson
Christina M. Hixson
photo courtesy of the Univ. of Nebr. Medical Center
Hixson-Lied College
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Christina M. Hixson
Christina M. Hixson
photo courtesy of the Univ. of Nebr. Medical Center
Christina M. Hixson graduated from Clarinda High School in Iowa in 1944. She borrowed $600 from an Uncle and moved to Omaha, Nebraska, to attend business school. After seven months, she went to work for Mr. Lied’s car dealership as a switchboard operator and took dictation since his secretary could not. After the war, Miss Hixson became his secretary and also took on the accounting duties. Miss Hixson joined Mr. Lied in Las Vegas in 1960 and became his assistant. She attended all business meetings with him as he relied on her instinctive judgment of people to guide him in his transactions.
After his death in 1980, Miss Hixson became the sole trustee of the Lied Foundation Trust. As such, she has turned the Lied Foundation Trust into one of the largest Foundations in the state of Nevada. Miss Hixson has tried to keep in mind the types of grants Mr. Lied would want her to make. She has made contributions to projects in California, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, Utah and Washington. Miss Hixson has a special fondness for young people who, like her, come from a challenging family background and are willing to work hard. Therefore, she has set up a scholarship fund at Iowa State University for students academically capable of college work but with no hope of attending without a financial boost. As Trustee of Lied Foundation Trust, she has demonstrated a keen insight in selecting for funding those projects that could only become a reality with a pacesetting gift that would, in turn, elevate the sights of other donors.
Ernst F. Lied
Ernst F. Lied
Portrait by Robert Weaver
Ernst F. Lied received a bachelor of science degree in business administration from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1927. He later moved to Omaha, where he owned a successful automobile dealership started by his family. He was president of the Lied Motor Car Co. at 2752 Farnam St. He moved to Nevada in 1959 and participated in the area’s booming real estate business. Lied purchased undeveloped land at low prices, an investment that grew to extraordinary proportions. When Miss Hixson joined Lied in Las Vegas as his assistant in 1960, he had already developed shopping centers, homes and a hotel.
Lied established the Lied Foundation Trust in 1972 in honor of his parents, Ernst M. and Ida K. Lied. Before his death in 1980 at age 74, Lied named Hixson, his associate for more than 40 years, as the sole trustee of the trust and instructed her to sell the acquired land to benefit the trust. Proceeds from the sale of this land resulted in a $133 million trust. More than $78 million in Lied Foundation funds have been distributed under Hixson’s direction to several major projects in Nebraska, including the Lied Jungle at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo, the Lied Conference Center in Nebraska City, the Lied Fine Arts Building at Creighton University in Omaha, the Lied Work Center at Quality Living, Inc. in Omaha, and many others.