Tommy & Joy Bowes

This scholarship is dedicated in memory of my father, Robert H. Bowes.

Robert Bowes attended Little Flower School and graduated from Ryken High School in 1959. He attended the United States Air Force Academy until 1961. He graduated from University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Science in aeronautical engineering in 1964. He then attended the U.S. Navy Test Pilot School (TPS) and graduated 1966. Bob worked in the Flying Qualities and Performance Branch of the Flight Test Division and was then transferred to TPS where he taught from 1967-1978. Due to his exemplary performance both academically and professionally, he was sent to Princeton University and graduated with a Master of Science in engineering in 1969. He retired after 28 years of civil service on April 15, 1988.
Despite all of his education, merits, and accolades, he is best known as “Captain Bob.” Bob started a charter fishing business in 1972. Over the years, Bob used his skills on the water for various activities including underwater recreational and inspection diving, renovation of SMECO power line towers, logistics support and tidal studies for the U.S. Geological Survey Team and the Naval Research Laboratory, and salvage operations. He also used his boat to give back to his community by providing fishing trips and boat rides for the children at the Muscular Dystrophy camp at Camp Maria, rides for the elderly and homeless with So Others Might Eat (SOME), and 43 years of carrying passengers to the St. Clements Island Blessing of the Fleet in support of the 7th District Optimist Club.

He performed all of these professional and community missions while helping his wife, Patricia A. Bowes raise 7 children. He led by example and used his analytical skills in everyday life by problem solving and making repairs on household items, boat motors, car motors and more. He taught his children how to take broken items apart, diagnose the issue, and re-assemble them once repaired. It was this “hands-on” approach that guided Thomas N. Bowes to open his own Heating and Air Conditioning company by the age of 23 after receiving his technical training and working for other companies for a few years. He had fantastic family role models with regards to work ethic and community caring and launched his HVAC business on the date of his father’s retirement in 1988.