Jerry Bowen

Jerry Bowen

Jerry Bowen, 92, of Heatherstone in Blue Ridge, VA and Harbour Castle in Fort Myers, FL, went to be with the Lord on May 22, 2025.

He was predeceased in 2007, by his beloved, Margaret Ann McCarthy, the wife of his youth, and the one and only love of his life. They met in Bible School, in Covington, VA at the age of five, and their love will last forever. They were married for 55 years.

Jerry leaves his son, and best friend, (Buddy) Gerald B Bowen Jr., his daughters-in-law, Sherri Pope Bowen and Sandra Jenkins Bowen, his much loved grandson, Gerald B. Bowen, III, (Another Jerry), his precious granddaughter, Kristen McCarthy Bowen, and his beautiful great granddaughter, Olivia McCarthy Gallo. He was predeceased by their daughter, Cindy Ann, in 1970 at St. Jude in Memphis, TN and by his parents, Raymond Leonard and Lavinia Catherine Bailey of Covington, VA in 1977 and 1978, and his sister, Carol Lynn Lockhart, of Roanoke, VA in 2024.

Jerry, at the age of 9, had a job mowing grass in a cemetery with a reel mower and plowed corn fields with a horse; and by the age of 10, he was bull-dogging and dehorning calves, cutting hogs, and twitching horses. (If you have to ask what this means, you wouldn't understand). When he was 12, he dug a house foundation with his big Bay horse, named Prince, with a scoop, and dug the footers with a pick and shovel for 50 cents per hour.

In his childhood years, Jerry's lifetime goal was to join the French Foreign Legion when he finished High School. In his preparation for this, he became a student of Charles Atlas, the world famous body builder, known for Isometric Contraction and Dynamic Tension. Jerry was constantly lifting weights, mostly calves, and punching sacks of grain hanging under the outside steps. His High School classmates aided in this endeavor by daily punching him in his stomach with hard blows, thus strengthening his solar plexus. He could withstand the hardest hitting of any of his friends. He even corresponded with General Charles DeGaulle, the French President, gathering information on the proper way to prepare for the Legion.

After years of preparation, he decided that Margaret Ann was more important than his lifetime goal and their life together began in their teens.

He was a member of the Corps of Cadets at Virginia Tech at Blacksburg, VA. After his Rat year at Tech, he dug footers with a pick and shovel for the new Blacksburg High School. He joked that he wanted to learn construction from the ground up. Unfortunately, his hands bled from blisters and Margaret Ann had to soak them to remove the gloves each night. He then worked on the V.P.I. Horticultural Farm in Christiansburg for the Rust Construction Co. at WestVaCo in Covington with the engineers.

He believed wholeheartedly in the Virginia Tech motto "Ut Prosim-------That I Yay Serve." Is it any wonder that he resigned from Tech when the Korean War was raging in 1952, and enlisted in the US Air Force? I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us. Then said I, "Here am I. Send me." Isaiah 6:8 Due to his military training at Tech, he was chosen to become a Flight Commander (drill instructor) to lead 72 Airmen through basic training at Sampson Air Force Base in Geneva, NY.

This was something new for the Air Force, and a title was created for Jerry. Not Airman, not Corporal, not Sergeant, but MISTER. He was known as Mister Bowen for the duration of his time in Basic Training.

The Air Force wanted him to attend Yale to major in the Chinese Language, but he chose Syracuse University in upstate New York, where he graduated with a Russian Language degree. This enabled him to read, write, and speak the language and he received a Top Secret Clearance.

He served his country for eight years, and was stationed in the Far East during the Cold War, gathering intelligence for the National Security Agency. He was honorably discharged as a Staff Sergeant.

He was a gun collector, (not a hunter), water dowser, artist, member of the Russian Choir at Syracuse University, and maker of stain glass windows.

He was a door-to-door shoe salesman, part-time barber in Japan, painter, draftsman, Champion pool player on Andros of the Bahamas. Gold Wing rider, a true Car Guy, having owned hundreds and giving away almost as many as Elvis, licensed Real Estate salesman, student pilot, sold building materials, farm equipment, and cars at a Ford Dealership.

He was a member of a Bank Advisory Board, The Cosmopolitan Club of Roanoke, Ducks Unlimited, and the Rotary Club of Roanoke.

Jerry Bowen was associated for several years with the former Alleghany County Sheriff, Emory Thompson, until his death in 1972. They developed Motel, Shopping Center, and Service Station sites and several Residential Sub-Divisions. They built homes in Alleghany, Bath, Craig and Roanoke Counties in VA and in Greenbriar County, WV.

Jerry Bowen owned and operated two Service Stations, a Restaurant, a Country Store, a Real Estate Company, Interstate Auto Mart, JB Enterprises, Flint Rock Corp, Shelton Stables, Blue Ridge Mall, HideAway Self-Storage of Blue Ridge, Botetourt Forest Water Corp., Bowen-Thompson, Inc., Botetourt Forest, Inc., Thompson Chemical Company in Winston-Salem, NC, bought House Boats in Florida and sailed them up the Inland Waterway to his Boat Sales in the Capitol Yacht Basin in Washington, D.C. He always said he sold good boats, as he never learned to swim.

He raised Christmas trees and hay on his farm in Craig County, refused a Volkswagen Dealership due to unjust differences with VW, and enjoyed various other professions. He never liked titles after his name. Perhaps that was due to having such a vast array of professions, and it was difficult to choose just one. A reporter with the local newspaper said that trying to convey a sense of Jerry Bowen's career in a newspaper article was a bit like attempting to write a comprehensive summary of the dictionary, and it made him dizzy to even think about it.

If someone ever referred to him as Mr. Bowen in his civilian life, he would say they must be speaking of his Daddy--and just call him Jerry, or Grandy, the loving name chosen for him by Kristen.

Jerry and Margaret Ann were owners and officers of Several Corporations and really enjoyed planning and building the hundreds of homes which they created together.

He was proud of saving the life of a fellow Airman in Japan who had actually died from carbon monoxide from a hibachi, and also using the Heimlich Maneuver to save the lives of a woman in Roanoke, a woman in D.C., and a man in Florida,

but most of all----------------------he loved his family.

He became a Christian at an early age, on a beautiful Spring Sunday morning, while attending Church with his Papa, Rufus Anthony Bowen.

A Celebration of Life will be held in Blue Ridge, VA at a later date.