$1.5 Million Helps Build Bridge to Better Health

Harry E. Bovay Jr. gives to New Frontiers Campaign for metabolic diseases

Harry E. Bovay Jr.

Harry E. Bovay Jr.’s father was a bridge builder. He built multiple bridges including the famous Vicksburg Bridge, which crosses the Mississippi River and links Mississippi to Louisiana. By age 6, Bovay Jr. already knew that he wanted to be an engineer to help his father on his construction projects, a dream he pursued over the next 84 years of his life.

Like his father, he too builds bridges. Through his work and his philanthropy, Bovay builds bridges between people – bridges that link communities, advance society and help pave the way for the generations that follow. It is just such a bridge Bovay is helping build through a $1.5 million commitment to the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM).

His generous pledge from the Harry E. Bovay Jr. Foundation to the New Frontiers Campaign will help bridge the gap between the laboratory bench and the patient bedside, between identifying the molecular causes of diseases and actually preventing them.

“His gift will help us build a bridge to better health for the next generation,” said James T. Willerson, M.D., president of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and visionary behind the IMM. “We are extremely grateful to Mr. Bovay. He has shown once again his long-standing commitment to helping others.”

The UT Health Science Center will match Bovay’s pledge with $500,000 to establish the $2 million Harry E. Bovay Jr. Distinguished University Chair in Metabolic Diseases, one of only six distinguished university chairs at the institution.

“Dr. Willerson saved my life, and I have seen first-hand the good work that he and the others at the health science center are doing. I’m glad to help,” said Bovay, president of Mid-South Telecommunications Company Inc. and owner/operator of the Bovista Real ranch in Leakey, Texas.

According to Willerson, the Bovay endowed faculty position will help the IMM recruit a top scientist to lead the new IMM Research Center for Metabolic Diseases, a center that Bovay’s gift will help establish along with $2 million in contributions from Development Board member Charles Butt and the H-E-B grocery company.

The new center will focus on the gene and protein causes of conditions like diabetes, obesity and Cushing’s Syndrome.

Bovay’s pledge to the IMM brings the campaign total to almost $180 million.

“Generous gifts like Mr. Bovay’s endowment are essential to attracting and retaining the kind of worldclass scientists that Dr. Willerson talks about,” said Beth Robertson, chair of the $200 million campaign to build a new home for the IMM and expand its research into the gene and protein causes of disease. “These scientists are the ones who will in turn attract and train outstanding students and be a magnet for collaborative projects with other academic institutions. The resulting synergy of ideas is what will lead to groundbreaking discoveries.”

Bovay said he believes in giving his support to team efforts where those involved work together to share ideas and learn from each other, so the collaborative structure of the IMM and its research were particularly important to him.

The IMM’s new building is designed to support interdependent research and encourage a lively exchange of information between faculty and students alike.

“All of us want to do something for our fellow man, for each other,” Bovay said. “I’m the luckiest guy in the world to get to do this.”

Bovay graduated with an engineering degree from Cornell University in 1936. After a brief time with the U. S. Corps of Engineers, he went to work for Humble Oil at its Baytown Refinery for nearly 10 years. In 1946, he branched out on his own and started Bovay Engineers Inc. By the time he retired as chairman in 1984, his company had grown to six U.S. offices and operated in 27 different countries.

“I remember working in the Esperson Building downtown, and when there wasn’t a lot going on in the office, I would go outside and just stand on the corner. I’d get jobs by talking to people passing by,” Bovay said.

His company’s work included projects for NASA and the Atomic Energy Commission, as well as chemical plants, power plants and the first underground pedestrian tunnel in downtown Houston.

Today, his holding company owns interests in telecommunication companies that provide state-of-the-art telecommunications to rural areas, including areas in suburban Houston. These same areas have become the focus of much of his philanthropy. The Bovay Foundation was formed specifically to support scholarships, education programs and community development in the rural areas where his companies have done business.

Visionary, entrepreneur, civic leader and philanthropist, Bovay has served as president of the National Society, Texas Society and San Jacinto Chapter of Professional Engineers. He has received the “Outstanding Engineer” award from each. He is also a member of the National Academy of Engineers (NAE). Bovay has been a committed member of the downtown Kiwanis Club for many years and has provided a permanent scholarship endowment for deserving youth.

A strong proponent of ethics training in engineering education, Bovay contributed generously to the NAE online ethics center and has provided endowments to both Texas A&M University and Cornell University to establish the Bovay Endowed Chair for the History and Ethics of Professional Engineering.

He also recently provided a $1 million challenge grant to Cornell to support the construction of the Civil Infrastructure Laboratory in the university’s engineering facility. This October he is to receive the 2004 Frank H.T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award for his leadership and service to his alma mater.

A portion of Bovay’s gift to the UT Health Science Center will support bringing a researcher from the Cornell-Weill Medical School to the IMM on an annual basis as a guest lecturer.

The health science center also plans to host an annual “science day” at the IMM for a select group of qualified Boy Scouts from the Sam Houston Area Council, of which Bovay is a Life Member. He has been named as Silver Beaver, Silver Antelope and Silver Buffalo by the Boy Scouts of America.

Having been a Scout himself, he said he recognizes the importance of the Boy Scouts of America. He has been a life-long volunteer and supporter of the Scouts and provided funds for the Sam Houston Council’s purchase of the 1,400-acre Bovay Scout Ranch on Highway 6 near Navasota.

“Harry truly is a bridge builder in the community,” Willerson said. “Anyone can see how deeply dedicated he is to improving and enriching the lives of others. Like any good Scout, he continues to leave the world better than he found it.”

— By Amber Buckley, Development