Lowell Stahl's Biography

The initial donation of $500,000 to open this center was made by Lowell Stahl, the retired president of Century 21 for the Chicago region and the former chairman of Labe Bank, along with other potential contributors. Stahl said that he hopes that this real estate center will give the College of Business a special niche in the marketplace.

“There’s no other school in the southwest suburbs that offers a program like this,” Stahl said, “and we’re not just talking about getting a real estate license. This program will focus on advanced commercial real estate where complicated mathematics and marketing are vital.”

The real estate industry has been one of the fastest growing fields in the United States. With Lewis University located in the center of one of the fastest growing regions in the United States, Stahl believes the center will be a huge success.

“I am confident that real estate is a constant industry in the United States,” he says. “I see our manufacturing industry declining and major U.S. corporations falling. But real estate is something you can’t ship overseas and it will become a major industry in the evolving service-based U.S. marketplace.”

Stahl has worked in both the real estate industry and the banking industry for more than 50 years. He became a salesman in 1955 and opened his own real estate office in 1958. In 1973, he formed Century 21 with an investment of $25,000, eventually building it into a leading multi-million dollar real estate company. In 1995, he became chairman of Labe Bank, retiring 10 years later. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Lewis in 1996. He is also a member of the College of Business’ Executive Advisory Board.

“I never had the opportunity of a formal collegiate education, and the Christian Brothers gave me all the education I had when I went to high school at St. Patrick’s in Chicago, and this is my way of giving back,” he says.

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