A long-time builder, architect, concrete trades person and community collaborator passed away this week.

Ed Sauter, a longtime resident of Mount Vernon, passed away Feb. 21, 2025, after a prolonged illness.

Sauter graduated from Iowa State University in 1972, with a degree in architecture. Service times/arrangements were not known at press deadline.

Sauter is survived by his wife, Jan, and three daughters: Claire, Lauren, and Rachel.

Sauter’s contributions in Mount Vernon were many, especially as a founding member of the Mount Vernon Historic Preservation Commission in the mid-1980s.

According to Sue Astley, chair of MVHPC, that founding group included the late Cornell professor of history Dick Thomas as Chair, Sauter, and current Mount Vernon residents Guy Booth, Sara Gaarde, and Bob Meeker.

“Over time Ed, Dick Thomas, and the late Leah Rogers rotated terms serving as Chair,” Astley said. “During the time Ed was on the Commission it established the Ash Park and Commercial Historic Districts on the National Register of Historic Places. Ed received several grants for the Commission, including one to create a narrative about the historical eras in Mount Vernon and the architecture that typified each of the eras. That photo display was exhibited at the History Center and in Mount Vernon and currently resides in the library of the First Street Community Center. Ed also did a number of historic restoration workshops for the community.”

Astley said that his most significant contribution to the commission may have been his creation of design guidelines for exterior work on historic buildings in Mount Vernon.

“Design guidelines specific to the nature of the architecture of a community are critical to the preservation of Historic Districts, and Ed’s work has helped Mount Vernon retain its historic charms,” Astley said.

Sauter had stepped down from MVHPC in 2022, after 36 years on the commission.

Jim Baty, who worked alongside Sauter at SB2, said when he looks around Mount Vernon, there are so many buildings that the two architects worked on, including Luce Admissions Office, Scott Alumni Center and the bell coupela on top of College Hall at Cornell College.

“In each of these projects we learned more about the historic structures and their rich heritage in order to cast creative vision into the renovations,” Baty said. “I am also very thankful for the work we were afforded with Hills Bank and Trust Company. They were a client before I joined Ed but once I was here, we began an aggressive series of projects for new branches and renovations/additions that culminated with the North Liberty headquarters for the Trust Department.”

Baty said Sauter’s best moments were as a “collaborator, mediator and educator.”

“I look in so many places around this community and see fingerprints of his passion and compassion, such as when the Scorz building had its catastrophic fire that left nothing but the brick walls standing,” Baty said. “His experience in historic restoration was key to the completeness of the work that will serve this community for ages to come.”

And while people will know of Sauter’s work as an architect, one area that he was also instrumental in was keeping two concrete industry groups functioning.

“The Tilt-Up Concrete Association and the Concrete Foundations Associations were both struggling industry groups in the early 90s when Sauter returned to Mount Vernon,” Baty said. “Each of those two associations consecutively lost their management groups conducting business on behalf of the members. First one, then the other, reached out to Ed, who had been on the board of directors for one (TCA), to see if he would be available to manage them through the murky waters of finding a replacement.”

In 2005, Sauter was named one of the 10 most influential people in the concrete industry by Concrete Construction for his work managing concrete trade associations – Tilt Up Concrete Association and Concrete Foundations Association as part of Sauter Baty and Associates.

“Two exceptional professional networks stand today to lead concrete industries that are pervasive in North America with interests in other international locations because of his vision,” Baty said.

Robert “Buck” Bartley, a former board president and charter member of the Concrete Foundations Association spoke about Sauter’s importance to the organization.

“It is difficult for me to wrap my head around this sad news,” Bartley said. “Truly an exceptional person, who [alongside Jim Baty] was chosen as directors of the CFA at a time we were struggling, and enlivened the CFA to the strong organization it is today. Through his vision, wit, intellect, and organizational skills forever stand as one of the giants of the CFA. So many fond memories to cherish. What a man!

“Baty said some of the lessons he learned from Sauter include the value of community.

“I found in him a profound sense of integrity, volunteerism and pragmatism,” Baty said. “I very much appreciated the way we balanced each other and how he used this to mentor me in architecture and association management. Our times traveling together are memories I will never forget, and ones that will be difficult to equal. We shared passions for golf, food, wine and investigating concrete. There wasn’t a place we traveled that we didn’t try to fit all four in, and at the very least would let golf take a back seat.”

As I observed Ed’s quiet confidence in leadership, I found a strong voice and the confidence to step into spaces that he began letting go of, but never once felt there was a shadow that I needed to step out from. Our partnership approached twenty years of leaning into each other’s strengths and intuitively sensing each other’s weaknesses.”

Baty said he viewed Sauter as one of his best friends and father-figure, as much as a business mentor and partner.

“When we moved to this community, a young couple with two young boys, it was he and Jan pouring into us that settled us quickly and surround us with the earliest memories of community,” Baty said. “But I think most of all, I will miss observing his contemplation. Ed was someone you could watch as his mind turned and it seemed he easily mastered the concept of being quick to listen and slow to speak, though he was never at a loss for words. He was the quintessential servant leader with a massive servant’s heart.”

Sara Gaarde, another founding member of the MVHPC, said Sauter believed the historic buildings of Mount Vernon were worth preserving, and the community should do things to keep Main Street alive.

“In addition to his community involvement Ed was a good father and husband, a fun person to know, and a great golfer,” Gaarde said. “He worked very, very hard. For a while he worked for a company in Ames, long before one could work remotely. If one of his daughters had a concert, sports event, or teacher’s conference Ed would drive back to Mount Vernon to attend it and often drive back to Ames late that night to be ready for work first thing in the morning.”

Gaarde said she and her husband Rich Hileman met Ed and Jan when their daughters were little, and spent several years at Jan’s cabin in northern Minnesota for a week in the summer.

“If Ed could still give advice I think he would tell people to cherish their families and find ways to help the community that they believe in and will enjoy,” Gaarde said.

Sauter was also named Citizen of the Year twice, once by the Mount Vernon Area Chamber of Commerce in 2006 and then by the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group in 2018.

In the article on his Citizen of the Year from Feb. 23, 2006, Sauter said he never sought the spotlight for his work, but appreciated being recognized for the time and effort he invested in the community.

Sauter and his family lived in Mount Vernon since 1978. He was instrumental in beginning the Mount Vernon Historic Preservation Commission as a founding member in the 1980s.

“Most people want the town to maintain its ambiance and preserve [its] historic resources,” Sauter said in an interview at the time.

Sauter also served on the economic development commission and later the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group and the building board of appeals for the City of Mount Vernon.

Sauter has had his hands in a Hiawatha spirituality center, single-family houses and locally, Hills Bank in Mount Vernon. Sauter said he loves the fact that almost everything in Mount Vernon – from banks and restaurants to home and the office – is just a few minutes’ walk away.

“It’s a great community,” he said.” That would be hard to give up.”

In the 2018 article on being named Citizen of the Year, Sauter said volunteering was in his family’s history, with his own father serving on every board imaginable.

Deb Herrmann worked alongside Sauter on the development of the community center for Mount Vernon, and said he “was a tireless volunteer of professional expertise and community connections to continue to push this project forward for what ended up being 15 years.”

Sauter also worked with students in architecture to give them a taste of how the architecture business runs, including the Herrmann’s son.

Rich Herrmann in that same article praised Sauter’s ability to gather people to help the group causes.

“Without Sauter’s vision and hard work, we would not be in the wonderful position we’re in as a Main Street community,” Rich Herrmann said.