Building Legacies
Robert C. Pew Living Center
There are 11 suite-style living centers named for Grand Valley Board of Trustees members Richard M. DeVos, Icie Macy Hoobler, Paul A. Johnson, William A. Kirkpatrick, Arnold C. Ott, Robert C. Pew, William F. Pickard, Bill & Sally Seidman, Dale Stafford, Maxine M. Swanson, and Ella Koeze Weed. All the buildings are divided into suites consisting of two double-bed rooms and a bath.
Robert Pew began his Steelcase career in 1952 as a manufacturing expeditor. He propelled through a variety of promotions and became the President of Steelcase in 1966 and chairman of the board in 1974. Pew was one of the founding members of the Grand Valley State College Citizen's Council which established the institution as a college. He served on the college's Board of Control from 1985-1989.
Robert Pew was instrumental in raising funding, chairing a committee to raise over nine million dollars to build and equip the Eberhard Center on Grand Valley State University's Pew Campus. He donated ten acres of prime Grand Rapids real estate to build the Grand Rapids campus. Glenn Putnam, the first dean of the Seidman School of Business, declared Pew the "ideal American businessman."
This Living Center on the Allendale campus was dedicated to Robert Pew in 1989.
For more information regarding housing at GVSU, click here.
Page last modified December 12, 2012
