BOWMAN, R. D. [Ronald "Dwight"]

BOWMAN, BRIGHT

Posted By: Sharon B Becker (email)
Date: 10/31/2014 at 15:34:42

Obituary ~ R. D. [Ronald "Dwight"] Bowman
May 07, 1883 ~ October 18, 1967

Sioux City Journal
Sioux City, Woobury County, Iowa
October 19, 1967

R. D. (Dwight) Bowman, 84, former longtime employee of the Associated Press and later of The Journal, died Wednesday evening at a Sioux City hospital after a long illness.

Mr. Bowman was employed as a telegrapher and later as a teleprinter operator and mechanic with the Associated Press for 35 years and worked in the same capacity with The Journal for 13 years before retiring in 1961.

He was born May 7, 1883, at Davis City, Iowa, and married Maybelle G. Bright Sept. 25, 1907, at Iowa City, Iowa. Mrs. Bowman died in Sioux City April 2, 1966.

Mr. Bowman started his career as a Morse code telegrapher in Des Moines in 1912 with the Rock Island Railroad. When the Associated Press Bureau in Des Moines had no one to take the story, Mr. Bowman received for the AP the news of the sinking of the Titanic. Several months later that same year, he joined the AP as a telegrapher, first in Des Moines and later in Omaha.

In 1938, when printers replaced Morse receivers and after being trained in the operation of the then new teleprinting machines, Mr. Bowman came to Sioux City. He repaired AP machines in the Siouxland area, and eventually was stationed permanently at The Journal. He worked at The Journal until his retirement in 1948 from the AP at the age of 65, and continued in the same capacity as a Journal employee. He retired from The Journal in 1961.

He was a member of the Morningside Presbyterian Church.

Survivors include three nephews and four nieces.

Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Friday at the Nelson-Berger Funeral Home in Morningside. The Rev. H. C. Brower, pastor of Morningside Presbyterian Church, will officiate. Graveside services will be Saturday at Leon, Iowa.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, November of 2014