Guest Blog Contributor
Don Bowles
A Roanoke native with expansive knowledge of the gospel and history, Don Bowles only wishes to be known as Wilma’s husband and the 54 wonderful years he shared with the love of his life.
After graduating from William Fleming in 1951 and attending Lynchburg College, he and Wilma started their lives together with Don pastoring in Floyd County and Portsmouth, VA. It was there that he came to realize that he just really did not feel called to ministry. Instead, God led him to the social services sector.
Don was offered the position of director of blood recruitment for the Norfolk Chapter of the Red Cross. From there he became director of blood recruitment for the Appalachian Region of the Red Cross.
A member of the Red Cross board had a mentally disabled son and recommended him for the position of executive director of what was then called the Roanoke Area Association for Retarded Children. When offered, he accepted the position and developed the workshop that performed contracts for business and industry in the Roanoke area. Along with Bill Robinson, Don was instrumental in the founding of Camp Virginia Jaycee.
He later went into educational sales with field educational publications, the text book arm of the World Book Encyclopedia and Nystrom Maps and Globes. When that was sold, he became a distributor of Rand McNally Maps and Globes for the next 35 years before retiring.
These days, Don passes his time studying the bible and sharing his historical knowledge with anyone who will stand still and listen. (History is one of his passions.) He also enjoys writing, a gift prophetically bestowed upon him in the late 80s at a full gospel businessman’s fellowship state conference. There a South African speaker gave a call for prayer and proclaimed that Don had the “tongue of a ready writer.” He has been writing meditations ever since.
