Ballard Loses a Good Neighbor in Bill Bowers

By Tom Herriman

Bill and Virginia Bowers in a recent photo.

Most people probably haven't heard of Bill and his family, but he was my neighbor, and he exemplified for me many of the qualities that provide Seattle's unique character and energy.

He was hardworking, inventive, curious, cheerful and reached out a helping hand to people whenever he could. He hired me to build a mahogany bookcase in his living room just a few days after I moved into the house across the street and began to set up a carpentry and contracting business.

Bill and Virginia Bowers lived in Ballard, in a house that he built himself, and during the '70s and '80s, their small company, Sea Land Associates, built or renovated dozens of crabbers and fish processing ships for work in the Bering Sea.

Bill in his boy scout uniform, circa 1925.

Bill was a native born Seattleite. He attended Garfield High School, and become a shop and mechanical drawing teacher in the public schools. Later, he started his own construction company and built dozens of service stations throughout the Seattle area including one that stood across from Frederick & Nelson in downtown Seattle for many years.

Bill was an innovator and experimenter. He developed some of the first prefabricated housing units with steel frames and walls with insulation sandwiched between layers of plywood. The modules were used for schools, banks, offices and housing throughout the Seattle area.

Even though his enterprises prospered and he employed hundreds of people, Bill still did his own tinkering with machines, ranging from caterpillar tractors to the little rusted out Toyota pick-up trucks he brought home from time to time. "The engine's still good. It's probably got another hundred thousand miles on her," Bill would say as he cleaned the carburetor and adjusted the spark plugs. He couldn't bear to throw things away that still had useful life left in them.

The Bowers-built crabber Baranof heads for the Bering Sea.

Right up to the day he died, he was working on learning Windows 98 so he could keep all his tax and business records on his home computer.

Bill and Virginia's three sons, Ed, Doug and Jim, worked with their parents in running Sea Land Associates. Jim, who died in 1988 was the bookkeeper, Doug directed the labor force and Ed developed new business leads. The company employed over 200 people. The main ship yard was on Northlake way, near where the Kalakala is now berthed. They also rented space in the Alki neighborhood where Salty's restaurant now stands.

Over 200 people attended a memorial service for Bill April 30 at Ray's Boat House.

Bill left a lasting legacy in Seattle. His ships still sail arctic seas and bring their catch back to Seattle. And his spirit of hard work, curiosity, experimentation, innovation, and love of humanity, still comfort and inspire those who knew him.

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