The Bowers Family: Involvement in BHS is Family Tradition
Article posted on Bloomfield Hills School District website March 19, 2021 (with photos): https://www.bloomfield.org/news/details/~board/alumni-news/post/the-bowers-family-involvement-in-bhs-is-family-tradition
Article written by Leah Abel, Family Ambassador, Bloomfield Hills Schools.
Tom, Jim and I with our Dad, Charles L. Bowers, posing in front of their Quarter Midget race car which we raced at a track next to Miracle Mile shopping center near the corner of Telegraph Rd. and Square Lake Rd. (late 50’s). We actually had two cars, #28 and #82. The track was moved to a different location and we quit racing…but it was fun while it lasted!
On a sunny Sunday in March, Jim Bowers, whose family has been deeply involved in Bloomfield Hills Schools over multiple generations, stopped by the E.L. Johnson Nature Center. Checking on the Maple Sugaring Program, Bowers likes to say hello to the Bloomfield Hills Schools families that participate in the Nature Center programs, and enjoys seeing all the newest developments at the Nature Center, which includes the land that was once the Bowers childhood home.
“We lived over there for 39 years, next door neighbors to the Olsens. The new Woodland Trail goes right through what was our family room! My dad was on the school board for nineteen years, which is why Bowers Farm was named after him. The family has deep roots here, and my dad helped recruit Don Hollums who was the first naturalist here. Don managed the Nature Center from 1970 to 1989, and lived in the Olsen house.” The Olsen family established a natural sanctuary on their property, and sold this property to Bloomfield Hills Schools in 1968, thus establishing the Nature Center within our school community. The Olsen home still serves as the caretaker residence for the Nature Center.
Jim explains how every member of the family was connected to Bloomfield Hills Schools: “My entire family is intertwined with the history of the school district.” Jim’s father Charles Bowers was a long-term Board member, while working as a family practice doctor in Pontiac. “My dad was on the PTO of Hickory Grove School when the Hickory Grove School District consolidated with the Bloomfield Hills School District. The Bloomfield School Board then expanded from five members to seven, and two of the Board Members were added from the Hickory Grove School area. My dad started his tenure on the Board of Education in 1960.”
The Bowers family all attended BHS. Jim notes, “It was unique that Hickory Grove was brand new when I was in elementary school. Bloomfield Hills Junior High School was brand new when I went there, and the High School had just been added onto and expanded when I went there, so it was nearly brand new.” Jim graduated from Bloomfield Hills High School in 1965, which was located at our current Bloomfield Hills High School. In 1967, Lahser High School opened its doors because of an expanding student population, and what was once Bloomfield Hills High School was re-named Andover High School. In 2015, the newly renovated and consolidated Bloomfield Hills High School reverted to its original name, in its original location.
Jim, the eldest of three, worked for the architectural firm Tarapata-MacMahon-Paulsen (TMP) Architecture. “TMP and Peter Tarapata designed several Bloomfield Hills Schools. I worked on the Fine Arts Additions of all the Elementary Schools. I also drafted all the construction documents for the new Learning Center and Bowers Academy at the Farm. TMP's specialty was the design of schools (elementary, middle, high schools both public and private), performing arts centers, athletic buildings, college and university buildings and all associated educational structures.”
Jim’s brother Tom worked at Andover High School as their PASS officer. Jim explains, “PASS was short for Parking and Student Safety. He held the STOP sign for the cross walk on Andover before and after school hours. He issued parking passes and enforced parking in the school parking lot. He patrolled the hallways between classes. He helped with school activities and assemblies. He responded to 'help' calls within the school with the assistant principal.”
The youngest Bowers brother, Pete, is best known for managing the BIFF radio station for 41 years. Pete began the BIFF - our local 88.1 FM - in 1976. This award-winning, student-run radio station provides extraordinary opportunities for our BHHS students to learn broadcasting skills. Pete’s two sons, Adam and Eric, both graduated from Lahser High School. Pete retired in 2017 and was inducted into the Michigan Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2018. Jim notes that, “Tom and Pete ate lunch together every day for 25 years. Tom passed away in 2016, and Pete and I miss him.”
When the Nature Center’s serene property was potentially threatened by a developer who was looking to construct five mansions on the adjacent property - which included the land that the Bowers family owned - the Board of Education worked on a property trade. The developer traded for land adjacent to Booth Center, and Bloomfield Hills Schools now owns the property surrounding the lake that is central to the Nature Center. Jim notes, “I’m out at the farm and will spend a lot more time here at the Nature Center, now that our family home is part of the Nature Center. And Dan Badgley built two bridges across the river, so you can now walk all the way up to Hickory Grove Road and back.”
Without the Bowers family, Bloomfield Hills Schools would not be what it is today! Their family’s generosity of time, dedication and energy to our schools is deserving of the legacy that the Charles L. Bowers Farm name bears.
Tom, me and Jim in 2011 when I received the Distinguished Service Award from the Bloomfield Hills Schools Board of Education.