Richard L. Fowler

RICHARD “L” FOWLER born in Orange, California on 12/31/1938, left his earthly home 9/1/2021, at the age of 82 and went to join his father, Claude Wendell Fowler of Hayti Missouri, his mother Doralice Noelia Davis of Ware, Massachusetts and his brothers Claude Wilfred Fowler, John Edward Fowler and his sister Anita L. Gleave. He leaves behind to mourn his passing his wife of 60 years Bunny Martha Fowler, his children Robert Lawrence Fowler, Jeannette Marie Venable, Julie Ann Kelley and Richard Mark Fowler along with 8 grandchildren and 6 greatgrandchildren.

A significant part of his life included planes, trains and automobiles. He served during Vietnam and retired from the United States Navy as an AVCM Master Chief after 30 years in 1989. His career centered on keeping aircraft in the air and the pilots who flew them safe. It wasn’t always an easy job, but he excelled at both. After retiring from the Navy, he worked for Sikorsky Aircraft Corp writing technical manuals for helicopters.

His love and fascination of trains started as a young boy. His father worked as a brakeman for the railroad and his uncle worked for the railroad as well. His mother ran the El Nido Hotel in Santa Barbara for railway workers and he enjoyed listening to the stories told by the railroad workers. He liked to hang out at the railroad station watching the trains come and go and seeing who and what trains brought from all over the country. Like his uncle, Richard built fully functional model railroads in HO gauge complete with dioramas and handmade trestle bridges. His children and grandchildren enjoyed being involved with the construction of these elaborate train layouts.

He grew up appreciating well-built and well-maintained cars. He periodically watched Nascar and drag racing but enjoyed going to car shows to see restored vintage and classic cars. To him a car was more than something used to get from point A to point B, but a magnificent piece of engineering and design. He would tell you though that there were some designs that would have been better left on the drawing board. His love of cars could be seen in the care he took maintaining his own vehicles. This was a testament to the passion he had for them. He enjoyed working on cars and was disappointed that cars had become so computerized it difficult for him to work on them.

He was fascinated by technology and kept up on all the coming trends especially when it came to computers. He regularly read computer magazines and manuals and over the years built several computers from scratch. He wasn’t much into computer games but could be coaxed into games with flight simulators since he had been part of a few flight crews while still in the Navy.

As a San Diegan for more than 40 years he was a serious Padres fan. He enjoyed going to ball games, but if he wasn’t at a game, he was either watching the Padres on television or listening to the game on the radio. He liked listening to the games on the radio because it reminded him of when he was a kid before there was television. He had been a Chargers fan but became less interested in the team after they deserted their fans in San Diego to move to Los Angeles.

After retiring, he spent his time with his family locally and would hit the road to visit family who lived out of state. He made several trips to Utah, Texas and Mississippi. Frequently he took his children or grandchildren along on these trips. Richard had an adventurous spirit and was up try new things if it wasn’t dangerous or against his beliefs.

He was incredibly detail oriented and methodical. This could be seen in the care he took cataloging his collection of over 5,000 movie titles. For each movie, this movie buff would list when the movie was made, the actors, the scenario, and if the movie had received any academy awards. He was constantly updating his film list. He became a film buff as a youngster. After finishing his chores at his mom’s hotel, he would spend Saturday afternoons at the movie theater. He was especially fond of historical movies about WWII and one of his favorite actors was John Wayne.

One of his hobbies and creative outlets later in life was cooking. He enjoyed hunting for new recipes and cooking those recipes for his family. He liked trying new cooking gadgets and tools too. Cooking was a hobby both he and his daughter enjoyed together.

He was an intriguing and private man. Kind of an enigma. He shared little of his early life unless you ask him directly. He looked up to his brother Jim, enjoyed instrumental Jazz, listened to radio show serials on Saturday nights and was a WW II history fan. His favorite flower was the purple iris and although he loved his dog Pal, his favorite dog was that gentle giant the Great Dane. He said he didn’t like cats but took in a scrawny little runt of a kitten and that kitten became his buddy for almost 15 years. He always rooted for the underdog and loved a triumphant comeback. He was unashamedly proud of his country and being an American. He was a patriot and was grateful for all the opportunities offered by this country.

He had a ready smile, loved to laugh and had a quick razor-sharp wit. He was the wizard of one liners and snappy comebacks, a trait he passed on to at least one of his children. Though he sometimes had difficulty putting has thoughts and feelings into words, he loved his family immensely. He wasn’t a perfect man, and he knew it. He would tell you himself that he was far from perfect, but he was a loving husband, a caring father, and a good friend and he will be greatly missed.