During a celebration and grand opening event last week for the new Evelyn K. Davis Center at Des Moines Area Community College’s Urban Campus, DMACC President Rob Denson (pictured) related a story about how planning for the center was spearheaded by community leader Jim Cownie. 

Denson recalled how Cownie sketched out a conceptual drawing for what would become the original Davis Center on University Avenue. “So I want to thank Jim, because in a record amount of time we were breaking ground,” Denson said. 

As the Business Record reported when the center first opened in August 2012: “The broad outlines of the center were originally dreamed up by its namesake, community leader Evelyn Davis, who envisioned a community-based place where individuals could receive education and on-the-job training. Davis died in 2001. The combination of rising unemployment and crime rates led businessman Jim Cownie to pick up where Davis left off.” 

“I remember that Jim misspelled ‘DMACC’ on that sketch,” Denson said. “But I was smart enough not to correct him.”