Grayson Bowers Jr.

1923 - 2024

Col. Grayson Hunter Bowers Jr (Pete), 101, passed away on Wednesday April 10, 2024 in Homewood at Crumland Farms in Frederick MD. He was born in Frederick on January 31, 1923, the oldest child of G. Hunter Bowers Sr. and Isabel Houck Bowers. He married Eleanor Cartwright Gambrill, also of Frederick, at All Saints Episcopal Church, on June 15, 1946.

He graduated from Frederick High School, Mercersburg Academy, and the United States Military Academy. In 1946 he was commissioned into the Army Air Corp, which became the US Air Force, and later earned a master's degree from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

Pete served as a pilot in the US Air Force and flew B-25's, B-26's and B-29's, to become a B-36 pilot in the US Air Force's Strategic Air Command (SAC). He trained and served at several air bases including Fort Worth TX, Albuquerque NM, Los Alamos NM and Limestone ME where he was assigned to the Nuclear Strike Force. He flew his B-36 with Gen. Chuck Yeager in Very High-Altitude Fighter Aircraft Performance Assessments. He defended the country as an SAC pilot and would have been one of the pilots assigned to fly into Russia with atomic bombs, if necessary. He was known to occasionally buzz Frederick with low level "flyovers." Returning to Frederick, he joined the family lumber business and among other things authored several United States and foreign patents for component manufacturing equipment which the Company made, marketed, and franchised worldwide.

For many years Pete served on the Executive Committee of the Board for the American Lumber Standards and was a long serving member of the board of the regional Lumbermen Association. He was appointed to a position in HUD by President Reagan to head the FHA Mortgage Insurance program then moved to the position of Director of Operations for the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, and then as executive vice president of the Rothschild Asset Management Group in the United States.

Locally Mr. Bowers was a member and President of the Board of Education of Frederick County, member of the Board of Trustees of the Frederick Community College, the Board of Trustees of Hood College, the Managing Board of The Homewood Retirement Communities as well as serving on the Regional Board for the First National Bank of Maryland. He was a lifelong member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Frederick. He was also a Life member of the Great Frederick Fair. Pete and Eleanor enjoyed thirty years at their Harbour Ridge home in FL after his retirement.

He is survived by his wife Eleanor, sons Grayson Hunter III (Bretta), Charles Michael (Marsha), Philip Winebrener, and daughters Virginia Houck Stenger (Herman), and Ann Lane Loehr (Joe), as well as nine grandchildren and many great grandchildren. He was predeceased by his brother C. Richard Bowers, his sister Joesphine Butler and grandson Matt Bachtell.

The funeral will be held at 11 AM on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at Evangelical Lutheran Church in Frederick, MD, 21701. Interment will follow in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, in Frederick, MD.

In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to the charity of your choice. Grayson Bowers, Jr.