Donald S. Powers, a man who helped shape the Town of Munster for decades, died Tuesday. He was 95.
Powers developed the town into a thriving suburb from establishing many Munster subdivisions to founding valuable medical and cultural institutions including Community Hospital and the Center for the Visual and Performing Arts. He also supported the growth of Purdue University Calumet and served as a member of Purdue’s Board of Trustees from 1975 to 1990.
“Mr. Powers devoted endless time and energy to the development and the growth of Theatre at the Center, Community Hospital and Community Healthcare System,” said his daughter, Frankie Fesko, who serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors Community Foundation of Northwest Indiana, in a statement. “His presence and his vision will be sorely missed.”
Powers, a Harrodsburg, Ky., native, served as a Navy fighter pilot in the Pacific theatre during World War II and he was called back for duty during the Korean War.
In between his military stints, Powers received a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Purdue University in 1947 and worked as an assistant agent in the Lake County Agricultural Extension Office.
In the 1950s, Powers established a thriving insurance business which eventually became Don Powers Agency.
Powers helped physically transform Munster starting in 1960, when he helped develop a 60-unit subdivision that eventually became the Market Square retail space. In 1964, he spearheaded the Fairmeadows addition, which by 1975 had added 1,700 residential lots, an elementary school, park, medical office complex, a hospital, and retail and commercial office buildings.
Munster Councilman John Reed said the town has changed quite a bit since the early 1970s when his parents bought a lot near the corn field which would become the home to Community Hospital.
“It was in the middle of a field and there wasn’t a road there,” he said. “Now it’s two blocks from the hospital. What’s always mystified me is how do you look at vacant lot and see that potential? I know I’m not that guy, but Donald Powers could see it.”
Powers also helped develop the Tanglewood Apartments in Hammond, Willow Tree Farms subdivision in Crown Point, Twin Creek and Briar Creek subdivisions in Munster, and the Briar Ridge Country Club and subdivision in Dyer and Schererville.
The creation of Community Hospital came after years of fits and starts, including two failed attempts to locate a site for the new hospital. In 1970, Powers came on board the Munster Medical Research Foundation and helped move the idea toward construction. Powers and four other developers donated five of the 15 acres necessary, plus $30,000 for site improvements. In September 1973, the 100-bed hospital admitted its first patient.
Now, the hospital has 427 beds with more than 575 physicians on staff. It’s part of the larger Community Hospital System, which includes St. Catherine Hospital in East Chicago and St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart.
“How many towns of 25,000 people have a Top 50 HealthGrades hospital?” Reed said. “When the hospital first formed, Powers was one of the visionaries to be able to picture what it would be able to do. He thought this can be a great town if we do it right.”
Powers stayed involved as the Chairman of the Community Foundation of Northwest Indiana, which oversees the hospital system’s operation alongside the Center for Visual of Performing Arts.
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The CVPA houses the Theatre at the Center, Northwest Indiana’s first professional theater, alongside an art gallery. It also serves as the home of South Shore Arts and the Northwest Indiana Symphony.
The Community Foundation also donated the land and financed the construction of the Community Veterans Memorial, located across the street from Centennial Park.
“In developing Calumet Avenue as a hospital corridor, there was a piece of land that wasn’t big enough for an office building, and Don Powers came up with the idea to do a veterans memorial,” Reed said. “It’s become an asset to the town and source of pride to the veterans. You’re able to show your kids, there’s a reason we’re able to do the things we do.”
Powers also was key in the growth of the Purdue University Calumet campus. In a statement, PUC Chancellor Thomas Keon said Powers’s support for the campus was invaluable
“He demonstrated his commitment to student success through the many scholarships he funded. His influence also enabled our campus to establish itself as a regional center of technological excellence with the construction during 1988-89 of the Computer Education Building that bears his name,” Keon said in the statement. “Driven by his deep Purdue love, first as a student and then as an alumnus and University Trustee for 15 years — eight as Chair — he championed numerous Purdue Calumet initiatives. He also offered considerable influence within Northwest Indiana and the Purdue system in ways that benefited our campus.”
A visitation for Powers will be held from 2 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Kish Funeral Home, located at 10000 Calumet Ave. in Munster, and the funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday at Munster Christian Reformed Church, 214 Ridge Road.