Dale Fowler says things changed a lot after he and his wife, Sarah Ann, “gave some money” to Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., in 2007.
“Some money” came to $60 million—a significant chunk for any nonprofit, and ground-changing for the relatively small Christian institution with about 1,500 students spread over 450 acres at the time.
The Fowlers are a low-profile, high-net-worth Orange County couple who had managed to fly below the media radar for years. They didn’t seek out any recognition in return for the gift—although they didn’t explicitly request anonymity, either.
Anonymity evaporated after Gordon College—where two Fowler grandchildren have graduated and a third is enrolled—named its whole campus for the couple. The move sparked national news coverage, putting the Fowlers squarely on the radar of a slew of institutions and others seeking financial aid.
“We got more appeals than you can imagine,” says Dale Fowler, who made his fortune in real estate.
Doti, Argyros
The raft of attention from fund seekers and the press didn’t dissuade the Fowlers from considering another major gift to a school. It was Chapman University, his alma mater.
Chapman President Jim Doti, no shrinking violet when it comes to fundraising, had earned a head start with Fowler. Doti can credit an old college pal of Fowler’s—George Argyros, a Chapman grad whose name is now on the business school at the campus in Orange—for the leg up with the Fowlers.
“Sometime ago we started taking notice of what Jim and George have done at Chapman,” Fowler says. “They’ve done a remarkable job, and we thought, ‘Gosh, we’re from Orange County, and we should leave some legacy behind there. It’s a well-managed and important institution. It’s a great credit to George and to Jim on what they’ve brought together at that institution in terms of intellect, capacity, and the ability to raise that boat to a new level.”
The Fowlers set out learn more about what Chapman had grown to become since his days as a student in the 1950s. They no doubt had some help from a grandchild who graduated from Gordon College and now teaches English at Chapman.
They also checked directly with Doti.
“We approached Jim and became friends with him and [his wife] Lynne,” an economics professor at the school, Fowler says. “We believe in supporting endeavors that we feel are worthy and where we can help make a difference—primarily education. We appreciate institutions that value freedom and education.”
The Fowlers eventually settled upon a gift to Chapman that’s on par with $60 million for Gordon College. They once again made no request for recognition and put no restrictions on the gift.
Doti did ask them to get to know Tom Campbell, dean of Chapman Law School, which will now bear Dale Fowler’s name.
Pretty heady billing for a fellow who grew up in Santa Ana helping his grandfather, father and uncle with the family’s gravel business. The Fowlers spend time at their summer home in Massachusetts and a place in the desert, but “we certainly are OC residents,” he says. “We still have the home we built to raise our family here.”
The start of the Fowlers’ fortune tracks back to the couple’s latest beneficiary.
Dale Fowler recalls examples that point to philosophic, as well as practical, aspects that put Chapman in line for the big gift.
He was the first member of his family to graduate from college and says he figured he’d make more money with a degree.
He got more than that at Chapman, he says.
“It really opened up a perspective to me that I didn’t have—and nor did people in my family have,” he says. “It broadened my view of the possibilities of the world.”
A practical payoff on his Chapman experience came even before graduation.
“I was reading the newspaper one day during a break between classes, and I saw that the City Council in Huntington Beach was going to ban oil derricks,” Fowler says.
Huntington Beach was as well known for oil rigs back then as it is for surfing now. Fowler figured the proposed change would make the area more attractive for residential development.
Fowler’s expanded view of the world’s possibilities—and a nice income earned by selling cars in Laguna Beach to put himself through school—led him to put up $5,200 for a chunk of land in Huntington Beach and secure a loan to finance the construction of an apartment complex.
Fowler sold that for a profit, made timely buys of 200 or so acres near Ontario Airport, and kept on developing.
