As they approached ages that for most people mean
retirement, Virginia and Jim Stowers faced the happy situation of being
wealthier than they might ever have imagined. They shared a conviction that
they wanted to use their money to help humanity, but they also wanted to make a
difference, to get results. And they wanted to play an active role in launching
the undertaking that would benefit from their largesse.
Their
decision on how to use that great wealth led to the creation of the Stowers
Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Mo., which operates with an
endowment currently worth more than $1.6 billion, almost all of it from their
gifts and the growth in value of those gifts through investment.
When the Stowers began planning for the Institute, many scientific and
philanthropic experts around the country told them that a research undertaking
of such magnitude would not succeed in Kansas City because great scientists
would not come to an area not known for major scientific research. But the
Stowers dismissed that with their commitment to put their entire fortune behind
the development of the Institute in the city that they love.
Hard work and unpretentiousness helped the Stowers build successful lives. Now,
whether entertaining brilliant scientists at their vacation home in La Jolla or
sharing barbecue with construction workers in Kansas City, they are applying
the same principles to their second careers as humanitarians and
philanthropists. He is president and she is vice-president of the Stowers
Institute, and they are so involved in every detail of its creation that, as
she says, "Neither of us has time to think about a headache or a
backache."
During construction of the Institute campus, Virginia Stowers devoted much of
her time to assuring that the Stowers Institute would be a great place to work,
with an environment that encourages scientific investigation and freewheeling
intellectual exchange. She made, or took part in, the decisions and discussions
about many aspects of the interiors of the Institute as well as the
landscaping. That ranged from selecting the woods for the cabinets and
boardroom table and choosing floor and wall finishes to the decision to create
a giant double helix at the entrance to the campus.
One day, for example, she roamed the booths of the Plaza Art Fair in Kansas
City with interior designer selecting artists who were invited to create art
for the Institute. She gave special attention to the one- and two-bedroom
residence units on the top floor of the administration building, which house
visiting scientists. She used her decorating skills to create a warm and
inviting ambiance in the rooms.
Meanwhile, Jim Stowers has transferred the investment expertise that made him
one of the most admired people in the mutual funds industry to the task of
developing a financial structure that will assure the perpetual wealth and
security of the Stowers Institute. Rejecting the more conservative approach of
many foundations and endowments, Mr. Stowers intends investing the Stowers
Institute assets in the same kinds of growing companies in which he put his
faith as a funds manager. He is also creating an innovative supporting
organization, the Stowers Institute for Resource Development, which will seek
contributions from other donors and maintain their donations as individual
accounts so that donors will always know how much their gift has grown through
investment, while also supporting scientific research.
People who have known Jim Stowers for many years inevitably describe him as the
most determined, tenacious and visionary person they have ever known. The World
War II fighter pilot trainee who could land his open-cockpit PT17 in a
designated spot more often than any other cadet later became the entrepreneur
who spent nights and weekends programming computers to analyze stocks. With the
computers, he revolutionized the mutual funds business and turned a stake of a
few thousand dollars into today's multi-billion-dollar American Century
Companies.
While her husband followed the dream that took him from struggling entrepreneur
to the peak of the investment business, Virginia Stowers bore and reared four
children and pursued her career as a registered nurse. She worked many years as
a nurse-anesthetist at Research and Menorah Hospitals in Kansas City.
Born and reared in Kansas City , Jim Stowers was graduated from Kemper Military
School and received a bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri, where
he also completed a two-year degree in medicine. His father and grandfather
were Kansas City physicians and Mr. Stowers initially planned to follow in
their footsteps after completing his military service, but he found himself
drawn to the business world and the limitless possibilities it offered.
The former Virginia Glascock was born in Rawlins, Wyoming, a town of about
5,000 people, to which her parents had moved from Iowa. She was drawn to
nursing as a career because two favorite aunts were nurses. After beginning
nursing training in Denver, she moved to Kansas City at the urging of a family
friend to complete her studies.
She was just out of nursing school at Research and beginning to work when Jim
Stowers walked into a Christmas party at the hospital in 1952. He stirred her
interest immediately, and he recalls feeling a natural attraction for her, even
though she turned down the candy cane he offered in his first effort to break
the ice. Nevertheless, they were soon dating, and in 1954 were married.
He sold mutual funds for another company and started a term life insurance
company before making the big leap and launching Twentieth Century Investors in
1958 with himself and 10 other people as investors. Mrs. Stowers was concerned
about the risk that this undertaking involved for their growing family, but she
urged him to go ahead, convinced that she could make a living if necessary.
Besides, she had confidence in a husband, who -as she says -never has any
doubts once he sets out to do something.
One of the original investors in the startup firm was asked recently why he had
enough confidence to invest in the venture of a young man he had only recently
met and who did not even have a business plan. "Well," said the
investor, "he's a sincere guy, he's a pretty good salesman, and he just
seemed like the kind of fellow you could trust. He was smart, had good ideas
and convinced you that he had the ability to actually go ahead and do these
things."
Even Jim Stowers' own confidence and vision could not fully forecast his firm’s
success. That same investor recalls stopping by Mr. Stowers' small basement
office one day when Twentieth Century Investors was young and chatting with him
about how things were going. Mr. Stowers commented wistfully that if they could
just attract $10 million worth of investments into their funds they would have
it made. In 1998, the assets managed by the firm -renamed American Century
Companies -surpassed $70 billion.
The Stowers Institute is an example of the loyalty the Stowers have always
shown to Kansas City and to the people who have become their friends and
colleagues over decades. Jim Stowers' idea of a good meal is a hamburger from
Winstead's, the pre-war drive-in restaurant a few blocks from the Stowers
Institute. To buy a gift for his wife he heads for Tivol' s in the elegant
Country Club Plaza district and bargains with his old schoolmate, Harold Tivol,
for fine jewelry. This combination of Winstead's, where the prices start at
$1.65, and Tivol ' s, where prices seem to have no limit, says something not
only about his loyalties but about the range of his taste as well because Jim
Stowers manages to mix legendary frugality with an equally legendary demand for
the very best.
After Twentieth Century began to succeed, Virginia Stowers was often asked why
she had not become part of it. She did help out when needed, particularly
during Twentieth Century’ s time of explosive growth after Individual
Retirement Accounts were created in the early 1980's, but she chose to stick to
what she felt comfortable doing - nurturing a family and working in health
care. While the children were growing up, Mr. Stowers was often traveling,
trying to build his company, but because of his wife, says a friend, there was
strength in the family, and structure, and a value system.
Sometimes, that required an incredible adaptability , such as during his motor
home phase. Never wanting to miss an opportunity to do business, he bought the
motor home in 1974 with the idea that the family could vacation in it while he
took care of business matters around the country .His wife was never thrilled
by the idea, and when she reached the point where she could not tolerate
camping anymore, he said, "I will drive up to the front of a hotel and you
can get out. I'll park it." That did not really happen, but when their
youngest child finished college, Mrs. Stowers put her foot down. "Enough!
Put a F or Sale sign on this thing," she said.
She continued to work part-time at nursing unti11986, when
the Stowers family was hit with the first of its battles with cancer. Mr.
Stowers was diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent surgery. In 1993, Mrs.
Stowers went through surgery for breast cancer, followed by five years of
treatment with tamoxifen. Their middle daughter, Kathleen, is struggling with
cancer today.
The cancer experience taught Jim Stowers that he was not indestructible, but it
also made him determined to do something about the disease. Cancer taught her,
Mrs. Stowers says, not to waste time fretting about small things. She says you
learn to focus on the most significant challenges. And the Stowers Institute is
a challenge so big that it awes even them. "Sometimes," she said,
"Jim and I look at each other, and one of us will say, 'Can you believe
we're doing this?' "
Used by permission www.stowers-institute.org