About The Bellows Foundation
The Bellows Foundation was formed by Stephen Boyle and Patricia Dolan on May 17, 2004.
The Bellows Foundation is the parent entity of The Bellows Institute. The Foundation is a 501(c)3 Arizona Non-Profit Corporation whose purpose is to fund the activities of The Bellows Institute, which include the research, development and management of practicum-based learning environments. Together, the Foundation and the Institute are referred to as “Bellows.”
The Founders
In 1959, Steve became a member of a start-up organization, Parachute Incorporated, led by Jacques Andre Istel, that brought free-fall parachuting from France to America and constructed the first commercial sport parachuting school in the United States in Orange, Massachusetts. Parachutes Incorporated was featured in Life Magazine in 1959 and 1961 and again in a runner-up Academy Award short subject film titled “A Sport Was Born” in 1962.
Subsequently, from 1963 to 1966, Steve served an officer and reconnaissance platoon leader in the United States Marine Corps.
For the next 35 years, he worked in joint venture finance, including fifteen years with Wall Street firms—seven years with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and eight years in charge of EF Hutton’s National Real Estate Investment Department. In 1983, he co-founded his own firm, L’Auberge Communities Inc., the general partner and fiduciary of seventeen joint venture development partnerships consisting of 7,000 investor/limited partners. Steve dissolved the firm in 2010, following the staged sale of the L’Auberge real estate portfolio and final disposition of the development partnerships.
He crossed over to the field of education in 2001 to work on an Ed.D. at Columbia University’s, Teachers College. He is currently developing his dissertation topic with a focus on research-driven, integrative, practicum-based learning. Since his return from Teachers College to Arizona in 2004, he and Pat Dolan formed The Bellows Foundation to be an instrument of innovation in secondary, post-secondary and adult education.
One of Steve’s most insightful learning experiences was as a middle and high school teacher at Patagonia Union High School in Patagonia, Arizona. In the school year of 2008-2009, he taught an economics course for high school seniors and general science courses for 6,7,8,and 9th grade students. In the spring semester of 2010, he taught two entrepreneurship courses for Patagonia middle and high school students and an entrepreneurship course for Nogales high school students in a program offered by the Santa Cruz County workforce agency, One-Stop Career Center.
He and Pat are currently working on the early development of the Oracle Commons project described on the Home page of this website.
Steve holds a BA from Cornell University, an MS of Accounting from the University of Massachusetts, and an MA from Columbia University’s Teachers College.
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Pat Dolan is an artist whose encaustics art work is represented by the Victoria Boyce Galleries in Scottsdale, Arizona. Pat has shown her work extensively in a series of Art Collaborations including:
1996-2004: Sweet Chariot, co-founder, facilitating workshops using art as a medium to
heal grief and loss, and co-creator of Ravensong, a non-profit dedicated to
providing opportunities of reconnection to the earth through art and ceremony.
1991-1995: Earth Angels, co-founder, an art alliance of artists dedicated to expanding awareness to our connection to the Earth.
1980-1991: Ruby Lee, co-founded with Charles Littler, an art collaboration of site sculptures, installations, video, performance pieces and a 4-acre site sculpture walk.
Currently, Pat is teaching at The Drawing Studio in Tucson. She has taught drawing, basic design and art workshops at Pima Community College. Formerly, she was a faculty member in the Art Department of Western Illinois University and DePaul University. She has also worked as a social worker, grief counselor and most recently a behavioral health specialist for the Area Agency on Aging for Pinal County, Arizona, working with caregivers of family members with Alzheimer’s and homebound seniors. She is currently creating an artist mentor program for The Drawing Studio, non-profit organization in Tucson
Pat is a member of Rancho Linda Vista, an art community in Oracle, Arizona, where she lived for fifteen years. The Ranch was founded forty years ago to create a community to support artists and their families, living and working together and creating decisions through consensus. While living at the Ranch she was the president of the Board and also created the Visiting Artist Program that hosts artists from around the world for artist residencies.
Pat holds a BS in Art History from Trinity College, Washington DC. and an M.S. in Visual Design from Institute of Design (Bauhaus), Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.
Who Is Bellows?
The work of The Bellows Foundation is dedicated to the memory of Chester Henry Bellows, Steve’s grandfather. Born in New York City in 1890, his dedication to learning and mentorship profoundly affected his children, grandchildren, and many others who were inspired by his personal attention. His academic aspirations were thwarted by The Great Depression. Chet devoted much of his spare time to humanitarian and educational efforts including the Boy Scouts and the Masonic and Methodist Episcopal Church movements. Were he alive today, one would hear his mirthful chuckle to think that his influence might have an impact on American education in the 21st century.