Charity Begins At Home

Meanwhile, in semi-retirement, Showers has only broadened that legacy. Now president of Strausser Investment, a land development company he founded with his son, he spends about a third of his time on charitable activities.

Many of his good deeds have been centered in the Akron area—both he and his wife grew up in nearby towns—but in 2002, he joined with other local business leaders to support the vision of a visiting priest from Africa with whom he'd become friendly. The priest was returning to Africa and wanted to build a high school in Tanzania, where only 7 percent of children go on to secondary education.

Though he admits that raising money for a school in Africa is difficult—after all, neither he nor other donors may ever actually visit it—Showers signed on as campaign chair to help raise the $2.2 million needed to build the school. “This is a chance to help people to help themselves,” he says. “Sending money to poor people gives them food for a day. Giving them an education gives them a chance to better their whole life situation.”

His fervent belief in education has driven his continued involvement with his own school, Archbishop Hoban High School, where he serves on the board of directors and has chaired two fundraising campaigns that have raised more than $6 million for the school.

Mary Anne Beiting, the school's principal, says Showers' leadership as a member of the board has been crucial to Hoban's ability to provide $1 million a year in need-based scholarships. Says Showers, who paid his way through school with a paper route and a job picking cherries: “Average students need to go as well as smart students.”

Showers has kept up his involvement with the Akron Rotary Camp, too, through the Showers Family Foundation. He and his wife started the foundation as a vehicle for their children to become involved in philanthropy. Though neither he nor his wife is a voting trustee, the family has agreed together to continue to focus on children's causes.

The Showers' grandson, Jeremy, has spent weeks at the camp, and their son, Jamie, visits often to assess the camp's needs. After an extremely hot summer two years ago during which campers with spina bifida struggled, the family offered to pay to air condition the dining hall. “When they see a need of emergency nature, they appraise it, review it, and do it. That air conditioning helped a lot of kids,” says Harig, who adds, “We don't have any monuments to them because the things they fund aren't monumental. They're just the things that need to be.”

HOSPITAL HELPERS: The Showers Family Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders at Akron Children's Hospital includes many forward-thinking treatments.

AGE: 59

POSITION: President, Strausser Investments, Canal Fulton, Ohio

CHARITABLE WORK: Akron Children's Hospital Showers Family Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders, Akron Rotary Club, Archbishop Hoban High School

AWARD: $100,000