When Bob Rowe was still in his teens and earned his first paycheck, he knew how he wanted to spend it. He bought a guitar. Rowe was raised in a devout Catholic family with five brothers and sisters in Battle Creek, Michigan. Along with his passion for music, Rowe had a growing commitment to his faith. But he says the priesthood came with too many rules. The choices he made led to a lifelong career playing music to the elderly, the disabled, and the marginalized. His ministry of music has led to many awards as well as national and international attention.
“I loved performing. I loved entertaining people and seeing them smile and enjoy the music,” Rowe says of his early days playing at clubs and other venues on the road. “But it just wasn’t quite enough for me. Being raised in a very socially conscious, post-Vatican II family that believed in the importance of service and caring for our fellow human beings, there was a big part of me that was calling, and I had to find a way to use that along with my big passion for music.”
It was around 1976, when Rowe’s grandmother received communion from a Catholic nun with the Sisters of Saint Joseph, that Rowe made a connection between his two passions.
As he watched his grandmother take communion and connect with the Sister, “a lightbulb went on,” Rowe says.
“I thought: ‘This is why I’m here.’ I saw this transformation in people, among the elderly and in nursing homes, when we combined music and ministry. I wanted to be of service to the elderly.”
Rowe added nursing homes to his music tours. He sang to the elderly, to the visually impaired, to the developmentally disabled, to veterans in VA hospitals, and to audiences consisting of those who are too often marginalized. His path forward was becoming clearer.
Rowe approached the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation for help.
“I met with the executive director there at that time, Russell Gabier, and he was wonderful,” Rowe says.
With that seed money and Gabier’s encouragement, Rowe founded the nonprofit Renaissance Enterprises in 1988. It operates in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, and New York as well as some neighboring states.
“We bring high quality arts and music programs to the residents of senior care and related long-term care facilities,” Rowe says. “Music, dance, puppetry, live art - we bring it to the elderly to assist in healing and ease suffering.”
Rowe has received many awards for his work in music. His most treasured award is the prestigious Mother Teresa Laureate in 2006, following a 15-year correspondence with Mother Teresa. Other awards include the Giraffe Award—for sticking his neck out to create such a unique music program for elders—and the International Peace Award.
With Rowe’s growing success and national attention, Renaissance Enterprises accumulated more funding from organizations like the Arcus Foundation, the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo, the Battle Creek Community Foundation, the Dorothy U. Dalton Foundation, the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, and the Harold and Grace Upjohn Foundation, among many others.
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