Glenn Bowie

Glenn Edward Bowie died at his home on Tuesday, June 28th at the age of 79. He was born in the east end of Toronto, Ontario (Canada) to Wallace and Edna (Hughes) Bowie on June 13, 1932. In 1953 he married Doreen Maye Lindo of Scarborough, Ontario and was married for thirteen years. He is the father of Bonnie Linda Yelton of Richland, Washington, Stephen Loch Bowie of Waunakee, Wisconsin, Geoffrey Todd Bowie of Black Diamond, Washington, and Craig Evan Bowie of Aurora, Colorado. In 1967 he married Nancy White, of Seattle, Washington. They were married for 46 years.

Glenn's work as a messenger-boy on Yonge Street in Toronto led him to know Hans Lundberg of Lundberg Explorations and to obtain work surveying for minerals in the Yukon Territory. An interest in the physical properties of materials took him first to the University of Toronto and then Columbia University in New York from 1953 to 1956, where he conducted research at the Lamont Geological Observatory while completing a degree in geology. As an assistant professor at the Michigan College of Mining and Technology in Houghton, Michigan, he redesigned elements of the engineering curriculum and published his first professional paper on the topic of mine openings. He was accepted into doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota in 1958, and was named Outstanding Teaching Fellow in 1960. His presence on an Antarctic expedition in 1962 resulted in the U.S. Board on Geographic Names of the National Science Foundation honoring him with a named geographical feature, the Bowie Crevasse Field. He was awarded a doctorate from the University of Minnesota in 1963.

Glenn would go on to live in Enumclaw, Washington, San Diego, California, Valencia, California, and finally in Red Wing. A professional career in aerospace applications included working in research environments with Boeing, McDonnell-Douglas, and Lockheed. He later became a specialist in acoustical forensics as a consultant with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, helping solve criminal cases including the death of actor Vic Morrow during the filming of "The Twilight Zone." He became a U.S. citizen out of the necessity of his work areas of national security.

Glenn and Nancy traveled in Wales, Cornwall, Scotland, and France. On one of these trips he recorded engine sounds from a Soviet frigate for the Defense Department. Following a near-fatal automobile accident to Nancy, they moved to Red Wing in 1986, where he developed a program in the acoustical testing of materials for the Red Wing Technical Institute. He and Nancy were life-long animal lovers, favoring Irish Terriers and Sasha and Smokey, adoptees from The Humane Society. He was a member of Christ Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Men's Study and the Red Wing Book Club. With Nancy, he volunteered at the county jail, teaching inmates to design web pages, and with the Red Wing Public Schools. He took pride in cultivating his home as a nature preserve and mentoring homeowners in his neighborhood on the use of erratics, boulders left from the glacier age, in landscaping.

Further information about his contributions to science may be found at http://mn_natura.tripod.com/careers/careers7.html

He is survived by his children, Nancy's daughters, Gaye and Christianna, a sister, Doreen Hembruff of Pickering, Ontario, eight grandchildren, and four great grandchildren. He was preceeded in death by his wife, Nancy, brothers Donald and Bruce, and his parents.

A celebration of Glenn's life will be held on Thursday, August 4th at 6:30 pm at 2425 Hallquist Avenue. Memorials in his name may be given to Christ Episcopal Church or The Humane Society of Red Wing.