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Pomona's
new IT building is named for the family of Jim C.
Cowart,
the College's first computer science major.
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Updated May 2007
Creating his own academic program, Jim C. Cowart '73 majored
in computer science long before Pomona College formally
offered that major. While still a student, he helped teach
Pomona's sole programming class. He even successfully
lobbied for a foundation grant that allowed him and other
tech-savvy students to set up their own computer mini-center
in the Mudd-Blaisdell residence hall.
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The J.C. Cowart Information Technology Building,
with the Lincoln Building seen in the background. |
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Three decades later, Cowart is still taking the initiative for
technology at Pomona College, this time by making the naming
gift for the College's new information technology building.
In a formal dedication May 2, the J.C. Cowart
Information Technology Building was named for three J.C. Cowarts, including his wife, Janet C. Cowart '70, and their
son, Jefferson C. Cowart '07.
“From his days as a student, Jim Cowart has been a leader in helping the
College to stay at the forefront of technology,” said Pomona
College President David W. Oxtoby. “The naming of this
building for the Cowarts is a particularly fitting choice.
Their generosity and foresight are deeply appreciated by the
College community.”
Jim reports that he thrived in Pomona's close-knit
residential atmosphere, and he believes it's important for
students to have the opportunity to learn about information
technology within the framework of a liberal arts education.
"The liberal arts are all about context. If you don't have
context, you can't really see how the whole works,” he said.
"You can't understand why the thing is the way it is."
A principal in a private capital firm, Cowart said the
family has long wanted to do something special for the
College and the IT building presented the perfect
opportunity, considering their long-time interest in the
field. An added bonus: their computer-science-major son,
Jefferson, works in the building.
"Pomona College has held a special place in our hearts for a
long time," said Jim. “Janet and I met here and were
married in Lebus Court, between Sumner Hall and Little
Bridges. We are very happy that Jefferson chose Pomona as
his college, too.”
Opened in January 2006, the 12,000-square-foot IT structure
allows the College's entire ITS Department to be housed at
one site, while also offering enhanced technological
facilities for students, faculty and staff. Key features
include a 24-hour student computer lab; spacious conference
room equipped with an interactive whiteboard; and a
classroom that can be set up with as many as 30 laptops for
training sessions.
All this is a far cry from the tech offerings back in Jim's Pomona's days. In the early 1970s, the campus had
one serious computer, the fabled IBM 360, which had some
serious limitations by today's standards. Programs were
created on punched cards that were fed into the computer.
 Janet, a math major, frequently walked by the campuses’ main
computer room in Millikan, but didn’t become involved with
computers until after Pomona. She worked as a Fortran
programmer in aerospace and investment management for 15
years.
With Jim Cowart and Gordon Sollars ‘74 taking the lead, a group
of tech-savvy students pushed to get access to a
terminal-sharing computer that did not require punched
cards, making it possible for them to interact with the
computer more rapidly (a big deal in those days). The Sloan
Foundation was impressed enough to grant the College $10,000
to pursue the project. Cowart and his fellow students lived
in a cluster of rooms in Mudd-Blaisdell, and from their
cramped computer room they pursued not only their own
projects, but also taught many of their fellow students
about basic computing. "Their efforts certainly stand as one
of the most unusual stories of student initiative in the
history of the college," trumpeted the Spring of '72 issue
of Pomona Today.
Cowart also found time as a student to do some work in the
nascent field of computer-based voter research through the
Claremont Institute of State and Local Government (now named
the Rose Institute), studying voter demographics during the
Sam Yorty-Tom Bradley Los Angeles mayoral race, and the 1972
California Republican Primary. Cowart helped correlate U.S.
Census data to voter precinct data, which could help
campaigns target expenditures and visits to areas rich with
swing voters. His senior project also involved the
application of computers to electoral politics.
After Pomona, Cowart took his computer skills to Washington,
where he helped create an automated system that sped up the
process of roll call voting in the U.S. Congress. But Cowart
became frustrated with the windy ways of government, and
soon he was off to Harvard Business School for his MBA.
Next came a successful career as an investment banker. After
a decade on Wall Street, Cowart’s entrepreneurial spirit
flourished and he founded Capital Resource Partners, a
private capital investment firm. In 1992, Cowart and David
Lahar (Harvard ‘79) formed Auriga Partners, Inc., which buys
and sells companies, helping them to get on track and grow.
As part of this work, Cowart has served as a director,
chairman or CEO of several companies.
Jefferson, meanwhile, carries on the family’s high-tech
ways. At age 2 he had learned how to select songs and
pictures on a PC, and punch cards were used for grocery
lists. During freshman orientation week, Jefferson contacted
ITS, landed a job and started working on Pomona’s network
before classes even began. He has worked there ever since.
Photos by Tom Haley '07 |
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