As a child, the late Harry E. Bovay, Jr. watched his father build bridges across the Mississippi River. As an adult, Bovey decided to build bridges of his own, both through his work as an engineer and through philanthropy. One of his most recent endeavors in the latter regard is the Harry E. Bovay, Jr. Foundation Symposium in Chemical Biology Endowment at Texas A&M University.
“The vision of Mr. Bovay was, ‘building a bridge to a better future,’” said Dr. Simon W. North, executive associate dean in the Texas A&M College of Arts and Sciences and former head of the Department of Chemistry. “Supporting the field of chemical biology, which applies chemical approaches to biological systems, has the potential to address many grand societal challenges. The holder of the Bovay Endowed Chair in Chemistry is a perfect example: a world leader in drug discovery research and director of the newly established Texas A&M Drug Discovery Center.”
The endowment, established by the Harry E. Bovay, Jr. Foundation of Houston, will be used by the holder of the Harry E. Bovay, Jr. Endowed Chair in Chemistry to support a symposium and lecture series with distinguished speakers and showcasing the innovative work of students and postdoctoral researchers in the College of Arts and Sciences at Texas A&M.
“Current Bovay chairholder Wenshe Ray Liu and I had conversations with the Bovay Foundation about leveraging their commitment to supporting research in the area of chemical biology at Texas A&M University,” North said. “There was interest from all parties in establishing a symposium which would bring world-class researchers in chemical biology to share their latest discoveries and foster collaborations.”
While Bovay embodied the Aggie Core Value of Selfless Service, he did not attend Texas A&M as a student. He was born in Arkansas in 1914 and moved to Memphis, Tennessee at 13; graduated Cornell University in 1936 as a civil engineer; and then worked for a short time for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Mississippi. He spent the next 10 years working at an oil refinery in Baytown, Texas, until he formed his own engineering firm, H.E. Bovay, Jr. Consulting Engineers (which later became Bovay Engineers Inc.) in 1946. According to Michael Patrick, a longtime friend and colleague of Bovay’s who now serves on the board of the Bovay Foundation, his firm became very successful, at one time ranking among the 10 largest engineering firms in the country.
“One of his first clients was Texas A&M,” Patrick said. “He worked with Major General James Earl Rudder '32, who served as the president of Texas A&M in 1959 and became president of the Texas A&M University System in 1965. They were working together to find out if it was reasonable to put air conditioning in at the university.”
The members of the Bovay Foundation Board of Directors have fond memories of visiting the Texas A&M campus with Mr. Bovay. On those visits he would always comment on how thoughtful the students there were, always eager to help you. Like Mr. Bovay, each board member has great respect for A&M. The Bovay Foundation directors appreciate the partnership between the Bovay Foundation and A&M, as Mr. Bovay did.
Bovay retired from his firm in 1984 and formed the Mid-South Telecommunications Company Inc., serving mostly rural areas. This, combined with having traveled with his father earlier in life, gave him the passion to give back to those areas. And so, in 1991, he formed the Harry E. Bovay, Jr. Foundation.
“He wanted to do education and community development in these small towns, most having less than 10,000 residents,” Patrick said. “So we decided that scholarships for education would be a big help. He thought education solved many problems.”
Since then, the foundation has given to many causes, from community grants in places like Fairmount, Georgia, to the Boy Scouts of America, of which Bovay was an active member.
“He would say he’d been a Scouter from age 6 to 96,” Patrick said.
While Bovay passed away in 2011, his legacy lives on through his philanthropy.
“The members of the Bovay Foundation Board of Directors have fond memories of visiting the Texas A&M campus with Mr. Bovay,” Patrick said. “On those visits he would always comment on how thoughtful the students there were, always eager to help you. Like Mr. Bovay, each board member has great respect for A&M. The Bovay Foundation directors appreciate the partnership between the Bovay Foundation and A&M, as Mr. Bovay did.”