Everett B. Dowe Jr.

Everett B. Dowe Jr., 85, of Windsor, friend and father, and husband of the late Patricia (Whittey) Dowe, died July 4, 2011, peacefully at home.

Born and raised in Lawrence, Mass., he was the son of Everett and Mary (Roche) Dowe. He had a happy childhood, growing up as part of a large, extended Irish Catholic family. After graduating from Lawrence High School in 1943, he was accepted into the U.S. Navy's V-7 program and spent a year at Middlebury College. Given the opportunity to join the V-12 program, he transferred to the College of the Holy Cross and graduated from there in October 1945 with a Bachelor of Arts in Naval Science. After his graduation, the Navy sent him to the Philippines for a year - an experience he never forgot. Returning home and wanting the college experience, he won an athletic scholarship to Colby College and graduated with the Class of 1948. He then decided to try teaching - and spent two years at Marianapolis Prep in Thompson, and met his wife through a colleague at the school. He left there after two years and started working for the Farm Bureau Insurance Co. in Hartford until he left for the Korean War. Meanwhile, he had a bit of a whirlwind romance. He and Patricia had their first date on Memorial Day and were married on Sept. 9, 1950. Part of the hurry was his decision to re-enlist in the U.S. Navy for the Korean War. He felt that the Navy had helped him tremendously and that he owed something to it. He left home in October 1950 and spent a year on the USS Telfair, coming back to settle in Canton in 1951. After this, he began a career as an engineer for the Emhart Corp. in Hartford and moved to Windsor in 1954. While he liked the job at Emhart, he wanted to return to his first love, teaching, and at some personal sacrifice started teaching at the Gilbert School in Winsted and then at Windsor High School in 1957, where he stayed until he retired in 1988. He loved teaching and derived a great deal of satisfaction from working with students and teaching physics and chemistry, and he received his Master of Arts in education from Trinity College in 1960. Meanwhile, he and his wife were busy raising six children, but following President Kennedy's inaugural call to service, he decided to become more active in his community. Becoming involved with the town's Democratic Party, he first ran for Town Council in the late 1960s and was first elected to the council in 1971. This began a longtime association with civic life in his beloved Windsor. He served on the council until 1983, including one term as deputy mayor and one term as mayor - during his final term. It was an experience he loved. He loved the people he met, and he loved helping his community - and the opportunities doing so gave him - like serving on the Bradley Airport Commission for many years. After his final term on the council, he started focusing his energies on conservation issues - from ideas that had begun in his own science classes. He was a founding member of the Friends of Northwest Park and served as its first president. For the next 20 years, he maintained a close association with Northwest Park - helping to convert old tobacco barns to park facilities and even to organize the annual summer work program for high school students. He expanded his interest in conservation by serving on Windsor's Conservation Commission, by working closely with the Luddy/ Taylor Tobacco Museum, and also by being a founding member of the Hartford Riverfront Recapture program. Through the years, he made many friends - many people who were able to know his humor, his positive energy, and his great enthusiasm. He was grateful for the many honors he received over the years, but he was particularly touched when he was named the Windsor Chamber of Commerce's "Citizen of the Year" and Windsor's "Irish Person of the Year." Besides civic activities, he tried always to remain vital and interested. He was a rabid Democrat - thoroughly interested in state and national politics and a faithful fan of the Red Sox, the Patriots, and UConn basketball. He was a voracious reader of newspapers and magazines and particularly loved to observe, study, and discuss New England weather. He also loved to bowl, to play cards, and, especially, to golf. Finally, he was a man who loved his friends, his family, and his faith. Raised in a devout Catholic household, his connection to his faith was important all of his life - from his days as a student in Catholic schools to his years as a lector and sexton at St. Gertrude Church. He maintained close friendships throughout his life - loving nothing better than a lunch or dinner with friends and chance to do his most favorite activity of all - to talk. His family he loved dearly, and he served as a model of integrity to them, whom he leaves to mourn his loss, Everett "Ben" and Debbie Dowe of Windsor, Matthew Dowe and Dr. Nancy Hensen of Suffield, Andrew and Linda Dowe of Windsor, Christopher Dowe and Jean St. Pierre of New Gloucester, Maine, Daniel Dowe of Windsor, and Amy Dowe of New Haven. He also leaves 12 grandchildren, Chelsea Dowe and Charles Dowe of Windsor, Colleen and Steve Bava of Ellington, Paul and Jennifer Dowe of Ellington, Kevin and Alison Dowe of Somers, Andrew and Jennifer Dowe of Windsor, Timothy Dowe of Dedham, Mass., Alexandra Dowe of Windsor, Molly Dowe and Benjamin Dowe of New Gloucester, Maine, and Kaeleigh Dowe and Erienne Dowe of Suffield; and three great-grandchildren; his sister-in-law, Nancy Dowe of North Andover, Mass.; and many nieces and nephews. He also leaves his lovely companion and close friend of the last five years, Shirley Cmara of Windsor Locks. In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by his sister, Kathleen Madden, and his two brothers, Richard Dowe and Michael Dowe. He was quite a guy.

Family and friends may gather on Friday, July 8, at 9 a.m. at the Carmon Windsor Funeral Home, 807 Bloomfield Ave., Windsor, followed by Funeral Mass at 10 a.m. at St. Gertrude Church, Windsor. Burial with military honors will be in Windsor Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Windsor.

His family will receive friends on Thursday, July 7, from 5 to 8 p.m. at the funeral home.

The family requests that any donations in his memory be made to St. Gabriel School, 77 Bloomfield Ave., Windsor, CT 06095, or the Friends of Northwest Park, P.O. Box 773, Windsor, CT 06095.

For online condolences, please visit

www.carmonfuneralhome.com