Brian Rowe, chairman emeritus of GE Aircraft Engines, today will announce a personal $300,000 gift to establish the Rowe Center for Women Engineers at the University of Cincinnati's College of Engineering.

        “I'm much more generous than I used to be,” Mr. Rowe, 70, said Wednesday with a laugh. “I used to be pretty stingy.”

        Starting next year, the center will promote undergraduate recruitment, retention and post-graduate mentoring for female student engineers at UC. The center also will offer workshops, leadership programs and career planning sessions — to generally serve as an information resource — to attract more female students to engineering at UC.

        “It's a great profession for a woman,” he said, recalling female engineers with whom he has worked.

        Born in London, Mr. Rowe started technical school in nearby Hendon at age 16. There were lots of girls in class, he said, “and I was wondering what the hell they were doing there.”

        Now he knows. At GE, "every time we put (women engineers) in a tough situation, they performed very well.”

        He said UC draws fewer women engineering students than comparable schools, and he has won the support of female faculty in the college for his effort.

        Numbers of women engineering students weren't immediately available Wednesday evening. The real test period of his efforts will be in 2004, after the faculty has had an opportunity to recruit high school seniors, he said.

        “I'll get feedback from the women involved,” he said.

        Mr. Rowe will spread his gift over three years, and friends and acquaintances will support his project because there is no matching grant.

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