William L. Bowen

Rye Cove High School

Class of 1969

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First Name	William L.
Last Name	Bowen
Graduation Year	Class of 1969
Gender	Male
City	N/A
State/Province	VA
Country	United States
Occupation	Engineer/Manager of EarthCon Services LLC
Married	Yes
Favorite School Memory	There 's many, but the fun times always dominate my h. s. memories.
About Me	No major complaints. Living under the auspice of the loving grace of our Lord and Savior, life has been good. Most of my adult working career has been in management. Straight out of college I took a supervisory position at a machine/repair shop for Westmoreland Coal Company. Most of the crew were WWII vets. They're all dead now, but what a group of knowledgeable/talented craftsmen. Stories were galore. One stationed aboard a naval vessel in the south pacific told of rescuing the survivors of the USS Indianapolis and of the carnage after numerous shark attacks. He also talked about touring the atomic bomb blast site at Hiroshima and being awed from all the glass. "Everwhere you looked there was glass." (Apparently the intense heat from the bomb blast crystalized the sand). Unless some miraclous experience awaits me down the road, my stay at Westmoreland will always be the highlite of my working career. After twenty two years, Westmoreland coal shut down. I found myself unemployed - laid off. Undoubtingly the lowest point of my life. (Here's a story that may give you a chuckle.) During this lull I was listening to the Bloomberg Finanical News and a reporter was chasing the Chairman and CEO (one man held both positions) of Yahoo through an airport for an interview. After corraling him, his name was flashed upon the TV screen - Timothy Koogle. I asked myself, "Is this the same Tim Koogle that I took several engineering classes with at UVA?" It was! To exasperate the agony, a few weeks later Forbes Magazine came out with their annual publication of the World's Wealthest 400. There he was (Koogle) listed in the top 300 with a net wealth at over one billion dollars. (Yes, spelled with a "B".) I went to one of the financial web sites and saw where he had exercised an option to sell 23 million dollars worth of stock. Here I was laid off, the poorest man in Scott County, and didn't have 23 cents. Low, I'm telling you that I felt low. The only thing that kept me from crawling in a hole was that I couldn't find one small enough. But by the mid 90's the internet bubble began to wain, plummet, and brust. Koogle was relieved (fired) of his duties at Yahoo. Now I hope that no one thinks that I got any pleasure from his demise. Well if you do, . . . . you might be right. To hasten my story, after bouncing in and out of a couple of jobs over the next few years, I joined an engineering firm (Appalachian Technical Service - better known as ATS Engineering) in Wise, VA. The idea was to do a design/build. A construction company (EarthCon Services LLC) was started to do the latter. I presently manage EarthCon. Along the way I met Ruth Hibbitts, a school teacher. We got married and have been "holding on" now for nearly three decades. We were blessed with one daughter. What a treasure she has been. She graduated fourth in her class from high school and with honors from VTech. This fall (2009) she will enter the dental school at VCU in Richmond, VA. Not bad for a 22 year kid. Y...(read more)