Where a Little Difference Makes a Lot

Roots That Run Deep

Randy grew up in Newton, left for college and law school, and knew he had to come back home, which was a decision he never regretted. To this day, he still lives about two blocks from where he grew up. Newton is ingrained in his life and his family, with his grandchild attending the same elementary school that he did. That rootedness wasn’t an accident, that’s chosen – again and again. And for folks like the Caldwells, Newton is worth choosing every time.

Margaret arrived in 1979, newly married and freshly settled into a teaching career. Even though she wasn’t born here, Newton became hers just the same. Moreover, the values she and Randy brought with them – shaped by parents who volunteered, served, and gave back without question – took root quickly in a community that seemed to ask the same things of people. 

“Both of my parents were volunteers in their church and in the community,” Randy says. “They instilled the value of giving back and not always thinking about yourself.”

That lesson, consequently, has passed to the next generation. Their daughter-in-law Miranda, who came to Newton as an outsider like Margaret, says being around the Caldwells changed how she showed up in her own community.

“Through their community involvement and how invested I saw they were, I became that way towards Newton.”

The Best Work of Life

Ask Randy to list everything he’s volunteered for and he’ll pause. Not because he can’t remember, but because the list is long – and because in his 47 years of practicing law in Newton, the boundaries between his profession and his community involvement have become blurred. Which seems to be the way he likes it. He has served as an attorney for Habitat for Humanity, taken on pro bono cases for people who needed help and couldn’t pay for it, and spent decades on the Iowa Bar Association raising the standard of legal practice for everyone who comes after him. He even wrote what may be the only up-to-date handbook on Iowa probate law. 

“Service to humanity is the best work of life,” he says, reciting the Jaycee Creed the volunteer group recites at the start of every meeting. He still believes in it. 

Margaret, meanwhile, has never been one to slow down. She spent her career teaching art, and even in retirement she substitutes, still leads clay classes at the Centre for Arts and Artists, and still shows up for the students and teachers who need her. Beyond the classroom, she serves as vice president of the Kiwanis Aktion Club, a community service group dedicated to people with disabilities. She tends to pocket parks on her way to the library, she repairs the church organ, she organizes quilting groups and print exchanges and annual days of fellowship for art educators across Iowa. Like her husband, ask Margaret to tell you everything she’s involved in, and the list will be long – however unlike her husband, she came prepared with everything written down on paper. But even then, she’s probably missing something.

“I like myself better when I’m doing more,” she says. “When I’m giving more and making things better for others.”

What it All Adds Up To

Randy likes to tell everyone exactly where he’s from. Not just Iowa. Newton, Iowa. Because it’s specific, it’s chosen, it’s a point of pride. For him, that makes it unlike anywhere else. And for Margaret, she sees a community where anyone can find their place; in music, in art, in service, in conversation. “There is enough going on that you can be yourself and probably find lots of ways to express the things that you want to express.”

Both of them, even after all these years, are still supporting that, still showing up, still striving to make Newton better than they found it – one pocket park, one pro bono case, one arts and crafts class, one volunteer meeting at a time.

“If everybody makes a little difference,” Margaret says, “that’ll amount to a lot.”