Concordia Seminary Newsroom
Planting a Legacy that Grows
When Jim Rowe finalized his estate plan, he knew it was important to include Concordia Seminary. For him, it wasn’t just a financial decision — it was an act of service.
“You take what you have, and you try to make it useful for someone else,” Rowe says.
Planned gifts like Rowe’s help cultivate long-term support for the Seminary’s mission — forming servants of Christ who will carry the Gospel into the world and sow faith for generations to come.
Roots of a Generous Life
Raised in Oberlin, Ohio, Rowe grew up in a home that had once been a stop on the Underground Railroad. Drawn to math and science, he enrolled at Parks College of Aeronautical Technology in East St. Louis, Ill., after graduating high school in 1944. He served in the U.S. Navy near the end of World War II and later earned his master’s degree in theoretical and applied mechanics from Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
It was in Ames that he met Phyllis, his wife of 66 years, and became a Lutheran. The couple married in 1950. After a second stint in the Navy as a communications officer, Rowe began a long and fruitful career in aeronautics and space, ultimately serving as vice president of marketing for Aerojet.
Throughout his retirement, Rowe has continued to cultivate service — volunteering with IRS tax assistance programs and providing meal delivery and safe driving classes for the elderly. At 98, he continues to reflect on the many blessings of his life.
“Every time there was a hiccup in my life — and I can count them — shortly after, something would happen that made it the best thing that ever happened to me,” he says. “It just turned around.”
A Seed of Connection
Rowe first became connected to the church’s educational institutions through a donor dinner hosted by Concordia University Irvine (CUI), Irvine, Calif., in 2003. It was there he met Mike Jaeger, then a development officer, with whom he has maintained a decades-long friendship.
“Concordia Irvine is really great,” Rowe says. “Just like the Seminary in St. Louis sending us all our pastors. The church’s universities and seminaries do great work.”
That evening planted a seed that has since blossomed into lasting commitment. Since then, Rowe has supported a variety of ministries, including Vision 2025, Lutheran Hour Ministries, the Salvation Army and Powerhouse Ministries, a program for individuals transitioning out of incarceration or addiction.
“It’s about bringing people into a life that is constructive and giving to others,” he says.
Including Concordia Seminary in his estate plan was a natural extension of that desire to nurture transformation
and growth. “It’s about giving,” he says. “Right from the start and right through to the end.”
Planting with Purpose
Rowe says his bequest to the Seminary is undesignated — meant for “whatever is most needed for whatever amount we can give.” What matters most is that the gift continues to bear fruit.
“If you want to plant a seed for the good of mankind, you need to do it in a place that grows more seeds,” Rowe says. “And that’s what the Seminary does — because each one of those people who leave the Seminary is going to do the same thing all over again. He or she is going to grow a bunch of other seeds just by what they do. I say ‘he or she’ because I am grateful for what the women, as deaconesses, are doing in the church in this day and age too. Today’s world is very different from what it was a hundred years ago, and it takes a much more diversified approach to reach people.”
Sowing Beyond Your Lifetime
Rowe hopes his story will inspire others to consider planting their own legacy through planned giving — no matter their financial situation.
“We don’t have a lot, but what we have, we’d like to have it be very constructively used after we die,” he says. For Rowe, that constructive use means sowing seeds of service that will continue to grow in the lives and ministries of future church workers.
“If people want to do something that makes a lasting difference,” he says, “this is it.”
Planning a Lasting Harvest
By including Concordia Seminary in his estate plans, Rowe is giving more than a gift — he is planting a legacy rooted in service, generosity and faith. His gift will bear fruit in the lives and ministries of future church workers long after his own story is complete.