Edwin Carlyle Rowe

This is the story of a unique and visionary man who carved out a place for himself, his family and his employees by caring for some of the most vulnerable people in our society: the very young, the very old and the intellectually disabled.

Carl Edwin Rowe, also known as Edwin Carlyle Rowe, Dr. Rowe, and simply Carl to those of us who knew him best was a full-on immigrant to the United States by way of Doncaster, England. Over the course of his career Carl’s kindness and understanding of the immigrant experience throughout his life was evident and he would often say that if he were President, he would provide every immigrant who wanted to come to the United States with a few thousand dollars and have them report back in a few years on whether they had been successful or not, and that would be the determinant of their immigration status. He truly believed that America was the land of opportunity for everyone and he really did have a soft spot in his heart for the underdog.

Dr. Rowe founded Developmental Client Care Industries in 1990 and developed a comprehensive residential healthcare model that has served and continues to serve the needs of hundreds of profoundly intellectually disabled individuals. Dr. Rowe’s model emphasized the delivery of top quality healthcare in a beautiful homelike setting customized to the unique needs and abilities of each Resident.

In addition to his work with the intellectually disabled, Dr. Rowe was a published author of several medical journal articles, a proven grant developer, a former University of Southern California Professor of Pharmacology within the USC School of Medicine and the developer of multiple successful drug usage studies and programs.

Within the last two decades, Dr. Rowe sought to transition his theories and work in residential care for the intellectually disabled to residential care for the elderly as well as the care and development of young families and children. Adapting a modified version of his healthcare delivery model for DCCI, Dr. Rowe successfully opened an 86 bed residential care facility for the elderly in 2001 and a 120-slot child development center in 2002. In 2019, the culmination of his campus vision was finalized when Moreno Valley’s first and only 99 bed skilled nursing facility was built and opened by Provident Health Care Corporation under a 99 year ground lease with Integrated Care Communities. Carl happily operated these businesses up until just a few short months before his passing using best practices from each industry to continuously improve healthcare and service delivery to each of his clients.

In his later years, Dr. Rowe was active on the Board of the Riverside University Health Systems Foundation as well as deeply involved with the Boy Scouts of America as a District Council Leader where he raised over $40,000 in his capacity. His son Eric has nearly completed the requirements for the prestigious Eagle Scout badge which Carl would have been deeply proud of. Dr. Rowe was also on the foundation board for the Riverside STEM academy where he donated a hi-tech 3D printing machine to advance the engineering mission of the school. Dr. Rowe was also a big supporter of the local Chamber of Commerce as well as the Moreno Valley Noon Rotary where he donated annually to their important cause.

In addition to the service to his Residents, Dr. Rowe employed literally thousands of people over the course of 3 decades and provided a place where someone without perhaps a ton of advanced education or even experience could take part in honest to goodness full time work with benefits while caring for folks who they would go on to develop deep, lifelong relationships with. The interaction he had with his employees through the years, drama and all, was the thing that Carl loved best about his work.

Carl leaves behind his dutiful wife Bette, his daughter Rosemary, his granddaughter Lily, his brother Mark and his son Eric who would like to operate the business someday in the not too distant future after attending business school.

Carl was so very proud of his children and pushed them to excel in everything they did. Carl was especially proud of his children’s academic achievements with both receiving top marks throughout their grade school years. One of Carl’s big aspirations was for Rosemary to attend nursing school so that she could fulfill her dream of becoming a traveling nurse and seeing the country, and I understand Rosemary will soon be enrolling at West Coast University Nursing School to begin that training. As for Eric, he is a top high school swimmer and recently qualified for the CIF championships. He has been training since he was very young and that effort is now paying off as Carl and Bette hoped it would. He recently was accepted to Cal Baptist University where he is considering a collegiate swimming career. If that weren’t enough Eric is also fulfilling one of Carl’s other dreams for him which is to become a licensed pilot.

In the last few years Carl had the great fortune of spending time with his granddaughter Lily who was truly the apple of his eye. He would often say with a smile on his lips and a twinkle in his eye, “well it’s time for me to go to my second “job,” as he joyfully headed home a little early to spend some quality time with his granddaughter.

Throughout his career, Carl’s confidence in his mission appeared to be unwavering. Carl live his life in such a way that he gave the sense that his unspoken motto was “NEVER SCARED, NEVER BACK DOWN, NEVER GIVE UP.” This gave everyone around him the sense that they too could accomplish much. With so many people having had the opportunity to witness Carl in his confident action, his legacy is secure.