George E. Bowman

George Bowman passed away on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014. He was 72 years old. He was born in Monterey Park, Calif., on Jan. 15, 1942, to Erwin and Norma Bowman.

Raised in El Monte, Calif., he always enjoyed recalling his childhood and his family. He married the girl next door, his love for over 53 years.

George worked in the industrial water filtration industry, pool and drinking water his whole adult life. He was successful in development, sales and marketing. He worked hard to help develop filtration systems for commercial pools, and his favorite, drinking water systems for municipalities when the Clean Water Act was passed.

He first worked at Swimquip in El Monte while going to college and stayed 24 years with Swimquip, learning his trade with passion and drive. Then he moved to Hoffinger Inc., environment products division (EPD) Knorr Systems, US Filter in Illinois and then Spectrum in Missoula.

George was a true professional in business, articulate, precise; a great communicator of concepts and ideas. He was also unafraid to get his hands dirty with the physical labor of a project, knowing that it gave him a more intimate knowledge of the products he manufactured.

With George leading the way, his family enjoyed many recreational and travel adventures. He loved fishing and hunting from an early age, continuing to the end of life, as well as camping, hiking and backpacking, especially the John Muir trail and other trails in the Sierras. George was an outstanding sportsman, always competitive in whatever he did – running 10k's, the Honolulu and LA marathons, road bike races with Team Edge and Team Velo, rock climbing with instructor John Long, single action shooting as a member of the Hellgate Vigilantes (a.k.a. R.E. Volver) and fly fishing. His passion for these activities made him "the expert" in all of his pursuits.

George loved the Lord, studied His word daily and always enjoyed the fellowship of his church family. His last message (he enjoyed changing the sign on a weekly basis) on the church sign to all of us was I$ Jesus Christ your personal Savior? He ran out of S's so he used the $ (dollar sign) knowing Jesus paid the price.

He was preceded in death by his parents and father-in-law Jesse Berry.

Survivors include his beloved wife Judy; son William Bowman and his family, daughters, Rebekah, Hannah, Jessica, sons Jacob, Zachary and ex-daughter -in-law Janice Wolford; his daughter Jeana Manna, husband Marc and family, daughters, Ashley, Katie, son-in-law Jarod Smotherman and great-grandson Cash Daniel; sister Marolyn Teichrieb, husband Don (Ted), their children Tom, Kathy and Connie; mother-in-law Louise Berry; brothers-in law, Don Berry, wife Rosemarie, sons Bob and Jeff, Stacey Berry, wife Lucy, son John, Arthur Berry, wife America, daughters, Summer, Jayne and Renee, Paul Berry, wife Leoma, daughters Leigh and Lauren, sons Andy and Aaron; sister-in-law Milly Smith, husband Daun, son Jesse, daughters Jennifer and Judy; and extended family.

George was a husband, a father, a family man, a man's man, a gentleman and a man of God.

Our lives will never be the same, we will always miss him.

Memorial Service will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 27 at Faith Baptist Church at the corner of Briggs and Lower Miller Creek. Fellowship dinner will follow. Contributions to the building fund at Faith Baptist, which he was very excited about, would be his request.
Read George Bowman's Obituary and Guestbook on www.missoulafuneralhomes.com.