Business manager was active volunteer
4/2/2006PEMBERVILLE, Ohio Theodore Ted Bowlus, 95, a retired longtime manager of the former Hobart-Bowlus Co. department store here and a community volunteer, died Thursday in the Otterbein-Portage Valley Retirement Village of multiple organ failure.
Mr. Bowlus managed the department store from 1950 until 1977, when he retired and the store was sold. It was founded by his grandfather in about 1880.
Mr. Bowlus also was a past president of the board of directors of the former Citizens Savings Bank, Pemberville.
A Pemberville native, he was a Pemberville High School graduate and received a bachelor s degree in business administration from Ohio State University.
He served on the Eastwood Board of Education in the 1960s.
In retirement, Mr. Bowlus enjoyed volunteering at First United Presbyterian Church, Pemberville, where he was an elder and treasurer many years.
He also spent time in Kauai, Hawaii, where he tried to walk at least several miles a day, collecting litter along roads and beaches.
For that work, he received a Kauai outstanding community service award in 1994.
Also in 1994, Mr. Bowlus was named Pemberville s outstanding citizen for his volunteer work in the community and at the church.
He had many convictions about being involved in the community, and he had many special convictions about such things as [the importance of] education and family ties, his son, Dr. Ted Bowlus, said.
During World War II, Mr. Bowlus was an Army tank commander with the rank of first sergeant in Europe, where he saw action in the Battle of the Bulge.
He was in the service from 1942 until his honorable discharge in 1945. He was a member of Pemberville American Legion Post 183.
He married Gertrude Fahning in 1946. She died in 1962.
Surviving are his daughter, Beth Yasuda; sons, Dr. Ted Bowlus and Tom Bowlus; sister, Elizabeth Bowlus; brother, Dr. Tom Bowlus; 11 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
Services will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow in First United Presbyterian Church, Pemberville.
Visitation will be after 2 p.m. today in the Marsh Funeral Home, Pemberville, and after 10 a.m. tomorrow at the church.
The family suggests tributes to the church or the Otterbein Portage Valley Retirement Village.