Meet the Giant Steps Campaign
Executive Cabinet
“
You walk on campus, and you fall in love with the place. It’s so beautiful and there is so much history of which I have come to appreciate much more.” Susan Allen
Jay ’79 and Susan Allen Green Village, NJ
Jay serves as the chair of the Wabash College Board of Trustees. He had an illustrious banking career and retired as managing director of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Jay steered Wabash through a presidential transition amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Susan is an avid champion for libraries and literacy in their community. “My introduction to Wabash was through Jay and his father,” says Susan. “Both of them are the kinds of citizens the world needs. A graduate from Wabash leaves here intelligent, with a conscience and knowledge about how to create good, how to solve problems on a big scale. Those are the kinds of things the world needs.” During the Giant Steps Campaign, Jay and Susan, passionate about how campus spaces help drive Wabash’s liberal arts mission, supported enhancements to the Allen Athletics and Recreation Center, the construction of the Ott Residential Life District, and the new campus center.
Steve ’68 and Joanie Bowen Glencoe, IL
Steve and Joanie Bowen served as national co-chairs of the Giant Steps Campaign. After concluding his time as chair of the Wabash College Board of Trustees and retiring as senior partner at Latham and Watkins in Chicago, Steve spent several fall semesters on campus as a visiting member of the Wabash faculty, teaching courses in philosophy and ethics, as well as a freshman tutorial, God, Human Limits, and the Things That Matter. Joanie is a retired nurse, an avid cyclist, and a master gardener. Other alumni family members include Steve’s son, David ’99, and Joanie’s son, Paul ’07. “Wabash students know there is no substitute for hard work,” says Steve. “They work hard, under the steady guidance of our excellent faculty, to achieve the Wabash mission of thinking critically, acting responsibly, leading effectively, and living humanely.” In addition to Steve and Joanie’s own generous philanthropic support, in 2017 then-President Gregory Hess announced the establishment of The Stephen S. Bowen Professorship in the Liberal Arts. This new professorship is made possible thanks to a grant in honor of Steve and as part of the Giant Steps Campaign from the Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation and Steve’s longtime law partner, Michael Pucker.
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