Pleasant Rowland
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Pleasant Rowland (born Pleasant Williams Thiele circa 1941) is an American educator, writer, and entrepreneur. Rowland is best known for creating the American Girl brand.
She has been married to Jerome Frautschi, who runs the family-owned Webcrafters book publishing company, since 1977.
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[edit] Early life and early career
Rowland was born and raised in the Chicago area. Her father was Edward Thiele, a noted Chicago advertising executive who eventually became president of the Leo Burnett ad agency.
After graduating from Wells College in 1962, Rowland embarked on several careers. From 1962 to 1968, she was a schoolteacher in several states. She also was a news reporter and anchor for ABC affiliate station KGO-TV from 1968 to 1971. Rowland left that industry to pursue a career as a textbook writer, and for several years was involved in writing and publishing children's textbooks. She was also the publisher of the Children's Magazine Guide. [1]
[edit] Accomplishments
[edit] American Girl
Rowland founded the Pleasant Company, which manufactures the American Girl dolls and accessories, in 1986. Rowland was inspired to create the American Girl brand by a visit to Colonial Williamsburg; she felt that the dolls, books, and accessories would make history more tangible - and therefore more compelling - for young girls. Each doll is designed with a specific story, placing them in a specific historical time period.
Based in Middleton, Wisconsin, the company reached $350 million in sales in 2001, and is second only to Barbie in U.S. doll sales. She sold the Pleasant Company (now American Girl) to Mattel in 1998 for $700 million.
[edit] Philanthropy
Rowland and husband Jerome Frautschi are major philanthropists in Madison, Wisconsin. Frautschi is from the Madison area and his family has been based there for several generations. They have made substantial contributions to Madison; together, they made what is one of the largest single philanthropical contributions ever, a $205 million gift to build the Overture Center for the Arts, Madison's performing arts and civic center. (Frautschi is said to have wholly financed the project with his personal funds from the sale of his stock in American Girl.) [2]
[edit] Criticism
Rowland has been noted in print as being an enigmatic figure, and challenging to work with. A fellow Madison resident who worked with Rowland on a project summed up the experience by stating: "Pleasant, isn't." [3]
[edit] Aurora
Rowland is a central and controversial figure in an ongoing debate about preservation and development related to the village of Aurora, New York. [4] Rowland's foundation joined forces with Wells College to create the Aurora Foundation, which temporarily managed a number of college-owned buildings and businesses in Aurora (all in a National Historic Register District) with the proposed intent of restoring the area. Among Rowland's ideas including burying cable and power lines, so the area has a more pastoral feel (as it did in pre-industrial times).
However, Rowland's project has also drawn criticism and concern. Critics contend that historic structures have been destroyed, fully gutted, substantially altered, or targeted for demolition, and have expressed concern that Rowland took control of so much property and invested a great deal of money ($40 million) without real benefit to the local economy. Their concerns are magnified by the fact that Rowland is not a native to the area (her only connection to Aurora is the time she spent there while attending Wells College, 1958-1962) and because she has been largely inaccessible as the controversy has intensified and gained national attention.
A local grass-roots organization -- the Aurora Coalition, Inc. -- was joined by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Preservation League of New York State in petitioning the courts to get a comprehensive public review and environmental impact study of Rowland's development project. Their lawsuit was denied.
As discussed in the article on Aurora, a balanced account should recognize that enhancing the attractiveness of the village contributes to the welfare of the two major employers of the community, Wells College and the MacKenzie-Childs business, which Rowland acquired when the company was in distress. She has invested substantially to improve the production and retail facility, a major tourist attraction of the region.
[edit] Happyland
A new fictional work, Happyland, by noted author J. Robert Lennon, became involved in controversy due to the book's plot, which had many parallels with the controversy in Aurora. In May 2006, W. W. Norton, which had been slated to release Lennon's novel, decided not to publish the book, reportedly due to concerns about possible litigation. [5]. Harper's Magazine has agreed to serialize the novel in its pages. [6]
