Retired Special Agent Charles "Chuck" Bowman passed away September 11, 2002. Thanks to Delores Jeffries, here is a reprint of a newspaper article about Chuck:

• Copyright 2002 Plain Dealer Publishing Co.

  The Plain Dealer

  September 15, 2002 Sunday, Final

  Metro Page B8

  HEADLINE: CHarles Bowman, Aided Homeless, Poor

  Bay Village

  Charles W. Bowman investigated food stamp fraud for the U.S. Department of Agricuture, but in recent years he spent his time feeding Cleveland's homeless and helping families repair or rebuild their houses.

  Bowman, 77, of Bay Village, died Wednesday at Fairview Hospital in Cleveland.

  Bowman became a special agent for the Department ofAgriculture about the time the federal food stamp program was established in the 1960s. He was assigned to the agency's Chicago regional office, working on white collar crime and client fraud. He was later assigned to the department's Washington office, where he set up an internal investigations unit.

  Before joining the agency, Bowman spend 20 years in the military, first in the Army and later doing counterintelligence work in Germany. A paratrooper during Woarld War II, he helped free the Philippine island of Corregidor from the Japanese by engaging in a tricky demolition detail. Bowman's job was to clear areas for flame throwers, a key tool in clearing caves where Japanese soldiers were huddling.

  In his church newsletter, Bowman recalled jumping out of an airplane on February 16, 1945 (belore I was born I - just added that in), with fellow paratroopers and landing in a crater created by a 500 lb bomb. "The earth was soft where I landed," he said. "The wind was so strong that day it blew men off the top of the hill into trees. Some were caught there; some broke their legs; others were shot." Allied troops regained control of Corregidor nine dayes later.

  He was a member of Bay Presbyterian Church, where he volunteered with the Catholic Store Front program in Cleveland. He fed tge ginekessm served as a deaconib and once a year cooked spaghetti and his special homemade sauce for the church kitchen.

  Bowman also went on mission trips to Alabama to help rebuild fire damaged churches and did house repairs for needy people in Appalachia.

  Surviving are his wife, Eunice Wilson-Bowman; sons, David Bowman, Jerry Wilson of Bay Village and Jay Wilson of Galveston, Texas; seven grandchildren; and two sisters.

  Memorial donations may be sent to the church, 25415 Lake Road, Bay Village, 44140

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note (by Delores): What a great guy he was, it was my pleasure to work with him. I just so happy that I did get a chance to see him while I was in Cleveland.