New Bettendorf park to honor late Ascentra CEO

In a world with too much darkness, Dale Owen always offered inspiring light.

On Tuesday afternoon, June 13, 2023, Ascentra Credit Union will lead a dedication of the new Be The Light Park, in memory of Owen, Ascentra’s former president and CEO, who died from cancer in 2020 at age 52.

The event will be 4-6 p.m., at 1108 State St., Bettendorf, next to Scuba Adventures and across the street from the new Adventurous Brewing.

The small, beautifully landscaped property is owned by the Iowa Department of Transportation, and instead of sitting as just an area to have to mow with no life in it, the Downtown Bettendorf Organization (DBO) wanted “to create a sense of place” and a new pocket park to “activate an underutilized piece of property,” DBO executive director Ryan Jantzi said Friday.

The triangular piece of land was too narrow to build anything, so about three years ago, they started working to raise money and create the park – which now includes a concrete patio with seating, hanging flower pots, new trees, and a landscaped area around a circular sign to be unveiled Tuesday.

The Scott County Regional Authority gave some grant money for the $30,000 project and the DBO used some of its annual revenue from the special improvement district that downtown property owners pay extra property taxes for, Jantzi said. That generates $150,000 a year.

Ascentra opened its new 40,200-square-foot, four-story headquarters in August 2019 at 2019 Grant St., Bettendorf. The credit union donates office space for Jantzi. He wanted to show DBO property owners there’s a return on their investment.

Dale Owen was a huge part of creating the DBO, which started a steering committee in 2017, and the district took effect in 2019. There is also a plaque dedicated to him in the headquarters.

Owen was going to become DBO chair, and after his passing, Jantzi approached Ascentra marketing manager Barry Shaw about dedicating a park in his honor – “his vision for creating a sense of place downtown,” Jantzi said. “Our vision for downtown is a place where people live, work, play and visit.

“So we have to have a class-A office like Ascentra down here and at nighttime, we have to have more Bridges lofts and stuff like that,” he said. “I think he was a solid foundation in helping create that DBO.”

“That was very much a passion of his to create this,” current CEO Linda Andry said. After Ascentra outgrew its old headquarters, Owen wanted to stay downtown, she said.

The credit union’s old office building was later renovated into the new Riverside Grille, 1710 Grant St., Bettendorf.

“The vibrant downtown was very important to him,” Andry said of Owen. “The more people you have down here, the more you can utilize the services of the businesses that are here.”

A Rock Island native and Augustana College alum, Owen was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in June 2020 and he died in November 2020.

“Be the light”

“Whenever any of us would have a conversation with him, he would end it with ‘Be the light’,” Andry recalled. “Go be the light, show compassion for others, show kindness, and anytime any of us talked to him – we were calling him to support him. During those conversations, it ended up he was supporting us in what we were doing, either at the credit union or in our community.”

“Be the Light” is a quote from the Gospel of Matthew, 5:16 (“let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven”). Owen was a deeply religious man, and he had four stepchildren and a foster child, Andry said.

Owen kept providing that light during the very dark times in 2020, which coincided with COVID shutdowns.

That first week in June, he said he was going to be in Iowa City (for medical appointments) for a week and a group of employees was going to visit him with signs. He ended up being driven to Ascentra, and the employees showed their signs and support, Andry said.

“Dale, he loved his community,” she said. “He served many organizations in Bettendorf; that was just his nature.”

One of his passions was the Quad Cities Cultural Trust (QCCT), for which he was one of three board chairs. Owen in 10 months worked to raise $500,000 from 11 local lending and banking institutions, including Bettendorf-based Ascentra. Together, those participants agreed to rename this project The Dale Owen Art and Culture Match.

It matched every dollar given up to $500,000 to support art and culture programs in the QC through QCCT, raising $1 million altogether by 2021. Owen had become one of three QCCT board chairs (or “tri-chair”) in January 2020. He was asked by outgoing tri-chair John Anderson, CEO at Quad City Bank & Trust, who was to leave the board.

“I couldn’t think of anyone better to step into the role than Dale Owen. Anyone that knew Dale knew he was a visionary and servant leader, always leading by example,” Anderson said in early 2021. “He was also my friend. I cared deeply for the work QCCT was doing and wanted it in the hands of someone who would also have that same level of passion.”

Owen worked for Ascentra 21 years, first as a lender, and became CEO in 2013. The former CEO, Paul Lensmeyer (1950-2013), also had a strong community focus and also died too soon, at age 62.

“It’s paying attention to the needs of the community. Paul established that; Dale carried it on and Linda is carrying it on, and it’s one of the things Ascentra will be known for in the future,” Shaw said.

Lensmeyer and the Board of Directors had put in place a key person life insurance policy that would protect the credit union in case tragedy struck. As Paul was preparing for retirement, he had already initiated a succession plan and had selected and trained Owen to assume his CEO responsibilities.

The foundation was launched in 2014 in Lensmeyer’s honor and the first grant was made in 2015, Andry said.

“Listening, caring, doing what’s right” are words that were genuinely spoken by Paul, who lived and breathed this mantra in his professional and personal life, according to Ascentra’s website.

“He instilled these beliefs into our organization which has made a difference in the lives of its members, staff, and the communities we serve. Now, through the Ascentra Credit Union Foundation we are ensuring that his legacy lives on and that these beliefs will have a positive ripple effect for generations to come,” the site says.

The Ascentra foundation has made $849,000 in charitable contributions since 2015. The former Alcoa Employees Credit Union now has over 42,000 members in 21 counties of eastern Iowa and western Illinois, 160 employees, nine locations and over $528 million in assets.

In January 2022, the foundation was given the Outstanding Corporation/Corporate Foundation Philanthropy Award by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Quad Cities.

New park sign

The new Bettendorf park’s circular LED sign will be lit up, with the “Be the Light” name of the park. Ascentra employees have been given orange “Be the Light” T-shirts.

They picked June 13 for the dedication because it’s “National Random Acts of Light Day,” said Jennifer Naeve, Ascentra senior vice president and chief marketing officer. That was launched in 2017 by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, meant to inspire a movement to help bring light to the darkness of cancer. 

“As an organization, we will be doing a number of things that are ‘Random Acts of Light Day,” Naeve said, noting cleaning up trash in downtown Bettendorf (from the bridge to the park) as an example. Staff will wear the “Be the Light” T-shirts, and encouraged to donate to people affected by the Davenport building collapse (with funds matched by Ascentra).

“The whole day is just about Dale’s spirit,” she said.

Ascentra employees are encouraged to volunteer year-round (on company time) for organizations like Junior Achievement and Big Brothers Big Sisters, Andry said.

Another thing Dale was very passionate about was the new I-74 bridge (connecting in downtown Bettendorf), she said, noting the first span of the new bridge opened Friday, Nov. 13, 2020. His stepson Nick drove across the bridge, taking a video of it, and showed it to Dale afterward.

“And then he passed the next morning, but he got to see it,” Andry said. “He got to see it virtually and he would be so happy. Believe me, we heard about the bridge all the time.”

Ascentra’s culture committee requested that the company plant a tree in Owen’s memory on the grounds of the building, Shaw said, noting there really wasn’t room at the headquarters property.

It just happened that was the time that Jantzi approached him about the new pocket park, which was an obvious solution. They planted two purple robe locust trees in 2022, and they bloom with purple flowers in the spring.

Purple is the color that represents pancreatic cancer, which they thought was fitting, Shaw said. On Tuesday, they’ll hang a medallion on each tree – one for Owen and one for Lensmeyer.

They will include the sayings they were known for – “Listening, caring, doing what’s right” for Paul and “Be the light” for Dale.

“It’s all a very powerful, emotional message for Ascentra staff – whether they’re no longer working for Ascentra or going to work for Ascentra,” Shaw said. “It’s so ingrained in our community, in our culture, it’s part of what we do.”

It’s also fitting there are purple and orange flowers in front of the sign. The DBO provided the orange bench (Ascentra’s color) on the patio. On the back of the sign will also be a tribute to Owen, describing his involvement in the development of downtown.