Tribute to Dale R. Bowen

Tribute to Dale R. Bowen WA8SHR, W8SHR
1943 - July 1, 2018

Dale R. Bowen, 75, of Southington, Ohio, passed away Sunday, July 1, 2018, at St. Joseph Health Center in Warren, Ohio. He was a 1961 graduate of Lincoln High School in Ellwood City, PA. and earned his degree in electrical engineering from Penn State University. Dale retired from Peerless-Winsmith in Warren, Ohio where he was Chief Electrical Engineer. During his career, he developed the motor for the Navy rescue submarine and components for the F-16 fighter jet and GE locomotive. He was an avid amateur radio operator, with the call sign W8SHR. He participated in the meetings of the Boat Anchor Amateur Radio Group. Dale was a past member of the Warren Amateur Radio Assn (WARA).

Dale was a good friend of mine. We first met back in the 70's when he was the repair man at Amateur Electronic Supply (AES) in Cleveland, Ohio. I asked the owner, Pete, a technical question and he sent me to the back room where Dale was working. Then in the mid 1980's, Dale got a job as an Engineer where I worked, Peerless Electric in Warren, Ohio. We remembered each other from our meeting a decade ago. From then on, we became very close friends. We worked on several projects together at Peerless Electric. We both became members of the local radio club, WARA. I gave the forums at their local hamfest and Dale would help me with them. We had Amateur radio Field Day for the club on Dale's property several years in a row. We would go to various hamfests together. We went to the Breezeshooters hamfest in Butler, PA every year. We also went to Wingfoot Hamfest in Akron, OH and the Lake Erie Boat Anchors Hamfest near Cleveland several times. In 2014, Dale, his girlfriend Nancy KB8OMO, and myself went to Aruba. I got licensed as P40CX. We all got on the air from there. Dale was an antique radio (boat anchor) collector. He had a very large and rare collection of ham radios. He knew how to repair all of them. My wife Diane and I would have a summer party most years. Dale and Nancy would always be there. Dale and Nancy were good friends. Dale was always cheerful. He was a person you would want to be with. He touched my life and made it better. I will miss you my friend, RIP buddy... K8CX

As far as being a Heath collector, Dale had most everything including test equipment in his collection, some very rare 160 meter Heath transceiver plus the whole Lunchbox series (Four of them) from the CB27 to the two meter unit "Twoer". I made sure he got the two he needed, a good CB27 and the Tener which there were only approx 200 kits sold.
In 2004, Dale was an entrant to Machine Design in Ford Motor Company's "Drive A Dream" contest chronicle how the magazine has helped them over the past 75 years. Dale won the contest! In part, Dale received a tour of several Ford facilities plus an opportunity to drive a STV Mustang on one of Ford's high speed test tracks.
Dale had several patents, including one pending on a low input, high output electric motor... Another was a Wheel assembly including a DC motor mounted within the hub and drive connected to the wheel. W8SU

Dale Bowen & I met in 1988, & it wasn't long before he told me of his passion for the old amateur radios. I was interested, because my father's hobby (all self taught) was electronics. He would get many Heath kits, crystal radios, etc. and assemble them. So when Dale told me about amateur radio it brought back some old memories. We started dating in 1990, and at that time I was enrolled in classed at Penn State on Nursing Leadership which went hand in hand with the job I had. It was 4 courses over 2 years and when they were done, I said that was enough. So I took a 10 week boating course on plotting routes, knots, & boating rules, since Dale liked boating.. Then in 1991 I went on a 2 week volunteer work trip to Haiti. Some members of our team knew a ham radio operator there and said that they would be able to send messages home to our families. I told Dale about it & he asked me to find out the date, time, & frequency. I did, and when the call was made to Dale, he was there waiting for it. I was able to talk to him under the operator's call. That was the first time I ever talked on a radio - and it was to Dale, making it very special. When I found out that some classes were being offered on Amateur radio, I thought why not ---If you can't beat them, join them. I ended up with my General License. This just gave us one more thing to share in the 28 years we were together. We would go to Put-In-Bay, Ohio every year, and often Dale would take his rig - sometimes successful & sometimes not. But he always enjoyed trying. But from the high hill at Punderson Campground, he would have a lot of luck reaching fellow hams. Dale really enjoyed going to Hamfests, except maybe for the ill-fated bus trip to Dayton. The bus from Cleveland couldn't find Walmart in Warren, so was a couple of hours late. But when we saw that the antenna was a coat hanger, that should have been a warning that this was not good. We got as far as Ashland when there was a terrible noise coming from the back of the bus. We pulled over & the driver asked ,"Does anyone have a cellular phone?" This was not good!! The company sent out from Cleveland a pick-up truck with a quart of oil. Even I knew that wasn't going to help. I can't believe how calm Dale was though all of this. Then the company set down 2 large passenger vans. We got to Dayton with less than 2 hours before closing. I won't even go into the trip home - it was worse than the way there! It was a nightmare I would just rather forget. Let's just say that there were 2 incidents where the driver went off the road & we could have all been killed, but anyone who was on that van knows what I'm talking about. Dale always looked forward to going to Butler Hamfest with Tom Roscoe K8CX, and to the Lake Erie Boatanchors group. He really enjoyed sharing information with other hams. Before I knew any better, we were at a hamfest and he would go out & about while I would man his table. He came back all excited, saying, "I just bought us a Two-er." I said, "Great, where are we going?" He answered "No, not a tour, but a Heath Two-er." He showed it to me and I said it looks like a lunch box, and he said it is a lunch box. At this point I was really confused --or as Dale would OFTEN say I was having a BLONDE MOMENT. I could go on & on with stories of our adventures in life together. There are so many wonderful memories. I miss Dale so very much, more than I can express. He was truly a special person. KB8OMO NANCY LEEPER

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