Jim Bowman, Writer

Jim Bowman, former Chicago Tribune columnist and former Chicago Daily News reporter, writes business and local history. Most recently he wrote a book about his life as a Jesuit, Company Man: My Jesuit Life, 1950-1968 (Little Man Press, 2012).

He previously made a short book from his Wednesday Journal of Oak Park and River Forest columns, A Short History of Oak Park: Volume One, 2004-2005 (Lulu Press, 2009).

His work includes book-length histories of Booz, Allen & Hamilton, CFS Continental, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, and Safety-Kleen. For each he dug into archives and outside documents and interviewed people from chairman to shipping clerk for what makes a company or institution unique.

He is available to do the same for your company in book, article, brochure, or however you want to memorialize your company, inspire employees, or stimulate business.

Books in addition to those above:

• The Colonel’s Marvelous Adventure, by C. Paul Johnson, privately distributed autobiography of retired Chicago banker, 2011. Bowman was editor.

  • Beyond Burnham: An Illustrated History of Planning for the Chicago Region, by Joseph P. Schwieterman and Alan P. Mammoser, Lake Forest College Press, 2009; Bowman did editing and research for this book.

• Good Guys Finish First: Reflections of a CEO and How To Start a De Novo Community Bank, by C. Paul Johnson with Jim Bowman (editor), 2004 – available at Amazon.com and elsewhere on the Internet

  • Winston & Strawn: The First 150 Years, privately distributed history of a Chicago law firm, 2004; Bowman was a researcher and writer for this project.

  • Reach Out . . . The Story of Motorola and its People, by Harry Mark Petrakis, 2003; Bowman was an editor.

  • History of William Blair & Company, Chicago, investment banking firm, completed 2000, unpublished

  • Florsheim the Brand: 100 Years and Counting, Florsheim Shoe Co., Chicago, 1996. Production was halted when company was sold.

  • "Waste Not . . .": The Safety-Kleen Story, J.G. Ferguson Publishing Co., Chicago, 1989

  • Good Medicine: The First 150 Years of Rush-Presbyterian- St. Luke's Medical Center, Chicago Review Press, Chicago, 1987

  • More Than a Coffee Company: The Story of CFS Continental, Chicago Review Press, Chicago, 1986

  * Booz, Allen & Hamilton: Seventy Years of Client Service, 1914-1984, New York, 1984

  Other: Priests at Work: Catholic Pastors Tell How They Apply Church Law in Difficult Cases, by Jim Bowman, is on sale at Xlibris.com. $18.69 in paper. (Formerly Bending the Rules: What American Priests Tell American Catholics)

  2004-2009, Bowman did a monthly column for Wednesday Journal of Oak Park & River Forest (Illinois). Recent columns.

  Blogs:
  * Blithe Spirit: Conservative commentary on events and others' commentary. Chicago newspapers, churches, Oak Park (IL), politics, and the merely curious.

• Not for Attribution: Diary of a Mad (Catholic) Reader. More personal, heavier on the religious and literary.

1982-85. For the Tribune Sunday Magazine, "The Way We Were," a column on Chicago history using Tribune clips and Chicago Historical Society, Newberry Library, and Art Institute of Chicago files.

1968-78. Reporter, Chicago Daily News
Member, past president, Society of Midland Authors
Member, Midwest Writers Association