James Rouse
| James Wilson Rouse | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Wilson Richardson Rouse April 26, 1914 Easton, Maryland |
| Died | April 9, 1996 (aged 81) Home - Wilde Lake Columbia, Maryland |
| Cause of death | Lou Gehrig's disease |
| Residence | Wilde Lake, Columbia, Maryland |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Wilson Richardson Rouse |
| Education | Tome School, University of Hawaii, University of Virginia (Political Science), University of Maryland (Law) |
| Known for | Land development, Shopping Malls |
| Home town | Easton, Maryland |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Jamieson "Libby" (Winstead), Myrtle Patricia Traugott. "Patty" |
| Children | Robin, James W Jr., Winstead (Ted) |
| Parent(s) | Willard Goldsmith Rouse (1867-1930), Lydia Robinson Rouse |
| Relatives | John Goldsmith Rouse II (Half brother), Anna Stump Rouse (Half sister), Mary Day, Dia (Lydia)(Pascault), Margret, Willard (Bill) |
James Wilson Rouse (April 26, 1914 – April 9, 1996), founder of The Rouse Company, was a pioneering American real estate developer, urban planner, civic activist, and later, free enterprise-based philanthropist.
James "Jim" Rouse was born in Easton, Maryland, the son of Lydia Agnes (née Robinson) and Willard Goldsmith Rouse, a canned-foods broker. His father, a lawyer trained at Johns Hopkins University, once ran as the state's attorney for Harford County. When he lost, the Rouse family moved from Bel Air, Maryland to Easton. Rouse grew up in Easton (then population: 5,000) on a well-to-do street on the edge of town. He was taught at home by his mother until second grade, when he transferred to a public school. In 1930 Rouse lost his father to bladder cancer, his mother to heart failure, and his childhood home to bank foreclosure. His brother Bill paid for him attend the private preparatory Tome School in Port Deposit, Maryland for a year.
Facing money problems and unable to continue at the Tome School, the Rouse family sought a way for him to attend college by appealing to his oldest sister, who had married a Navy officer stationed in Hawaii. Rouse declared himself his sister's dependent and, with Navy connections now secured, was thereby able to attend the University of Hawaii at a greatly reduced cost. Despite the exotic lure of the islands, Rouse missed Maryland. Again, the Rouse family found a scholarship for Jim at the University of Virginia. He declared his major as political science and waited tables at a local boarding house. Because he was unable to cover the gap between his scholarship and his remaining expenses, he left Charlottesville and moved to Baltimore to try to make it on his own.
In 1933, Rouse arrived in Baltimore in search of opportunity. He was fortunate to find a job parking cars at the St. Paul Garage. He later remarked that he got the job even though he could not drive. He convinced his foreman to teach him rather than fire him. He worked in the garage one year. In May 1935 Rouse wrote Millard Tydings who found him a position with the Federal Housing Administration as a clerk specializing in completing FHA loans to eastern Maryland banks. Although he had only two years of undergraduate college on his transcript, in the 1930s that was enough to qualify for law school. He borrowed money in March 1936 from Guy Hollyday who was a loan officer with the Title Guarantee and Trust Company seeking FHA loan guarantees and attended classes three nights a week at the University of Maryland law school. He was hired at age 22 by his mentor Hollyday.
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