Barbara Taylor Bowman, early childhood education advocate dies at 96

Barbara Taylor Bowman held many roles over her influential, decadeslong career, including consultant, commissioner, speaker, board member, founder, advocate, academic and author.

But the job that was most important to the early childhood education pioneer was caring for her family in South Kenwood, said her daughter, Valerie Jarrett, chief executive of the Obama Foundation.

"I grew up knowing that the most important job she had was to be my mom and a good spouse to my dad and to nurture our family," Jarrett said. "She managed that mighty juggle with which so many working moms struggle, trying to figure out how to be both passionate about your career and also nurture your family, and she taught me by example how to do both, but that the most important job was to be a good mom to me."

Bowman died of heart failure Nov. 4 at 96.

Such was Bowman's drive to lead a purposeful life that she was offering colleagues sound advice until the day she died.

"A week before she died she says to me: 'I still have so much more left to do,' " Jarrett said. "But at 96, that's a life well led."

Bowman was born on the South Side in segregated Chicago on Oct. 30, 1928. Her father, Robert Rochon Taylor, became the first African American to chair the Chicago Housing Authority in the 1940s. A collection of CHA high-rises on the South Side were named for him. Her mother, Dorothy Taylor, was a teacher.

Bowman attended Hyde Park High School before transferring to and graduating from Northfield Mount Hermon, a prep school in Massachusetts.

She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1950 and became a preschool teacher, sparking a passion for early childhood education. She married Dr. James Bowman the same year. She went on to earn her master's degree in education from the University of Chicago in 1952.

Finding few opportunities in the U.S., the couple moved to Iran. Jarrett was born there, at the hospital her father helped start. The family moved to London and then returned to Chicago in the 1960s. James Bowman became the first tenured African American faculty member in medicine at the University of Chicago. He died in 2011.

In 1966, Bowman became one of the co-founders of what became the Erikson Institute. The institute was launched in response to concerns that few teachers were adequately trained to work with children enrolled in the burgeoning Head Start program for low-income families. The institute has prepared generations.

“Barbara Taylor Bowman was a true visionary,” Erikson President Mariana Souto-Manning said. “Her legacy is one of transformation, not only of Erikson, but of the entire early childhood education landscape. She didn’t just shape an institution — she helped shape the very foundation of the field."

For many years, the institute's graduation ceremonies were held in Bowman's backyard. She also taught at the institute and served as its president from 1994 to 2001. Bowman also served on numerous boards and commissions.

She was chief officer for early childhood education at Chicago Public Schools from 2004 to 2012. When former CPS Chief Executive Arne Duncan was appointed U.S. secretary of education during the Obama administration, Bowman served as a consultant.

But Bowman didn't measure success in titles, she measured it in how you bettered the world around you.

"She was very humble about any of her accomplishments, because she said that's not the measure of success," her daughter said, adding that her mother always credited the team around her. "It's what you actually do when you have a voice, as opposed to just simply have a voice."

Gov. JB Pritzker called Bowman a personal hero.

"Her pioneering work in early education and development transformed the field and inspired generations of educators and advocates — a legacy that has made our education system and our communities undeniably stronger and more prosperous," Pritzker said in a statement.

For Bowman, "Education was sort of the key to locking in opportunity," said Laura Jarrett, her granddaughter, who is chief legal correspondent and co-anchor of NBC's "Saturday Today" show.

The two talked about the hardships of being a Black family during the Civil Rights era. Overcoming those obstacles gave Bowman a perspective that she imparted on her family through uplifting phrases like, "It's going to be fine."

"If I was fretting about something, she would always assure me, it's gonna be fine," Laura Jarrett said. "She was very good at having a perspective so that I didn't blow things up larger than they needed to be."

Laura Jarrett remembers Bowman as a doting grandma who taught her how to bake cinnamon rolls and biscuits when she was 9 years old.

Bowman loved to host and was the matriarch of the family. Her home was the gathering place for cousins and relatives on Sundays, holidays and other special occasions. When she wasn't reading or watching mystery series on TV, she was tending to her beans, tomatoes, raspberries, flowers and other plants in her beloved garden.

But above all, "she put family first," Laura Jarrett said.

"I think those of us who she loved know that we were actually the most important thing in her life," Jarrett said.

Bowman is survived by her daughter, granddaughter and two great-grandchildren.