Martin Bowers, Jr.

Mr. Martin Luther Bowers, Jr -85, formerly of West Chester, PA and more recently of Frederick, MD died Sunday, October 23, 2016 at Frederick Memorial Hospital where he was born one of triplets, on December 30, 1930, to the late Martin L. and Helen Potter Bowers. He was predeceased by his brother, Grayson in 2007 and sister, Sally Proffitt in 2015.

Mr. Bowers graduated from Frederick High School and Mercersburg Academy, and earned a Bachelor of Science in Commerce & Finance from Bucknell University in 1953. He served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War aboard the USS Graffias as engineering officer.

After the war, Mr. Bowers returned to the family lumber business in Frederick for 13 years. In 1969 he moved the family to PA to begin employment with the Lawrence R. McCoy & Company as a lumber broker. He retired as a Marketing Vice President in 1999.

Martin shared the name of his father and grandfather and remained a faithful Lutheran throughout his life. In West Chester, he twice served as President of the Church Council at Calvary Lutheran.

He was President of Eastern Lumber Salesmen’s Association and ran the monthly golf outings of the Philadelphia Lumbermans Group.

Martin was a musician. As a teenager, he and his siblings and their friends formed the Teenage Music Makers and performed in Baker Park and the Episcopal Church. He played the double bass with a jazz band while in the Navy. He loved classical music and maintained a season ticket to the Philadelphia Orchestra for many years.

He was a 50 year Rotarian; a past President of the Frederick Club which made him an honorary member. While in PA, he organized the first Red Cross blood drives for his Rotary club and went on to serve on the Board of Directors for the Southeastern PA Red Cross Chapter from 1979-1984.

Martin loved to garden and maintained a large bountiful plot for years which sustained the summer tables of many neighbors and provided a therapeutic outlet.

Surviving is his wife: Natalie Colbert Bowers; a son: Martin Firestone Bowers of Conshohocken, PA; a daughter: Jane Bowers Brophy and husband Michael of Wayne, PA; five grandchildren: Alexander Martin Bowers of Portland, OR; Peter Delaplaine Bowers of New York City, NY; Brittany Christine Bowers of Berwyn, PA; Caroline Colbert Brophy and Benjamin Quynn Brophy of Wayne, PA.

Five nieces and nephews also survive, as well as several cousins.

The family will receive relatives and friends at Stauffer Funeral Home, 1621 Opossumtown Pike, Frederick, MD on Friday October 28, 2016 from 4-6 pm. Memorial service will be held on Saturday October 29, 12:00 pm at the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 35 East Church Street, Frederick with Pastor Douglas P. Jones officiating.

Interment private.

The family requests that memorials be made in memory of Mr. Bowers to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, P.O. Box 5014, Hagerstown, MD 21741-5014, 1-800-708-7644 <tel:18007087644>, www.michaeljfox.org; or to the Western Maryland Chapter of The American Red Cross, 1131 Conrad Court, Hagerstown, MD 21740, (301) 739-0717, www.redcross.org.