Jim Fowler

Jim Fowler, 87, retired educator and beekeeper, died Friday, January 19, 2024. Rosary will be at 7:00 pm, Wednesday, January 24, 2024, Funeral Mass will be at 10:00 am, Thursday, January 25, 2024, both at Church of the Resurrection Catholic Church. James was the first of three children to be born to Leonard and Frances Fowler in St. Paul, Kansas. The family moved to Parsons, KS where they would welcome James’ younger siblings, Charles and Elizabeth. Leonard and Frances Fowler lived and worked in Parsons their whole lives. They raised their children with a deep love of their Catholic faith and taught them all to be hard workers and always take care of family. The three Fowler kids grew up in Parsons, attending St. Patrick’s catholic grade and high schools. James loved playing sports, especially baseball and basketball along with hanging out with his friends in Parsons. Growing up in a hardworking, catholic family and attending catholic schools helped to form the man we all knew. James was a devout Catholic who practiced his faith his entire life. James met the love of his life, Shirley, while he was living in Parsons. They met on a blind date and have been together ever since. James and Shirley got married at St. Patrick’s church in Parsons and James went to work doing anything he could to provide for his new bride. James attended Pittsburg State University where he earned a bachelor’s degree to teach industrial arts, which consisted of teaching printing, drafting and woodworking. After graduating from college James accepted a job teaching industrial arts at the brand-new Heights High School in Wichita that was opening up in the Fall of 1961. James moved his young family to Park City where they lived for most of their adult lives. James started his full-time job at the new school, joined the army and went to graduate school on the weekends down at Pittsburg State where he received his master’s degree in industrial arts - all to provide for his family. When James started at Heights, he was the youngest teacher on staff at that time. The rascal side of James would come out occasionally at Heights just to keep everyone on their toes. He would often comment that he must have been doing something right during his teaching career since he was a shop/woodworking teacher for over 30 years and still had all ten of his fingers when he retired. James and Shirley had five children, Steve, Cindy, Mark, Teresa, and Mike. That was a lot of mouths to feed on a teacher’s income, so James would work non-stop to provide for his family. When not teaching or at church you could find James in his normal work outfit which consisted of a worn-out pair of bib coveralls, held together, or patched with duct tape, at times wearing an old white shirt underneath. James would paint houses, tend to his unusually large vegetable gardens, and raise chickens when not serving in the National Guard or going to graduate school. While doing all of this he also started a new hobby, bee keeping, which he turned into the James E Fowler & Sons Honey company in 1969. At one point in his bee keeping career, James maintained over 1,000 bee hives in the Wichita area by himself. He harvested so much honey that he sold the excess honey he couldn’t bottle and sell in his stores by the semi-truck load to other honey producers or to the government. His kids were raised to help the family and could be found working in the garden with their dad, collecting eggs from the chickens or spending countless hours in the bee building, which James built with his own hands, bottling honey to sell. James’s family was one of the most important things in his life. He would load his family up in their station wagon and travel down to Parson’s or Stillwater to visit family on the weekends or holidays. If they weren’t traveling down to visit family, they would spend time in their luxurious pop-up camper and fish along the Neosho River with friends. James loved fishing with anyone at any time or watching baseball games. He would help officiate wrestling matches for his sons or attend his daughter’s softball games. He would go on bike rides or take his kids to the park, even after a long day of work. James always made time for his kids. Once his five kids grew up and had families of their own, James and Shirley spent countless hours going to their grandchildren’s school or sporting events. James and Shirley never said no to watching their grandchildren. James could be found riding bikes with the grandkids, taking them to parks, playing kickball with them or making/eating homemade ice cream, James loved ice cream and black coffee. James always helped family members to try and make their lives better. James loved his family and tried to instill in all of them the faith in God that he had by practicing his faith so fervently. Jim and Shirley lived the life of stewardship and helped raise money for the Church of the Resurrection by working bingo on Saturday nights, providing transportation to the sisters who taught CCD, collected and donated food to those less fortunate every Christmas, and performed almost every job that a lay person can perform in a parish. James helped build this parish with his own hands. You can still see his stewardship today in the church & school that he helped build and even by looking at the row of cedar trees to the South of the school that he helped plant. James and Shirley’s son Mike was killed just after Mike graduated from high school. During this time, James and Shirley leaned on their faith to get them through the pain of losing a child. The loss of Mike was like a fire tempering steel when it came to James’s faith, it only made his faith stronger. James would attend mass and say the rosary daily. James was a fourth degree Knight of Columbus and really enjoyed spending time with his fellow knights making or eating pancakes with crispy bacon or passing out/eating tootsie rolls. James and Shirley have such a deep faith that they made it a point to see as many of the popes with their own eyes that they could. James was a good and loyal son, brother, husband, father, grandfather, and great grandfather. He was an educator who taught people how to build or make things, raise a family or live in their faith. He lived a busy life full of hard work and prayer. Preceded in death by his parents, Leonard Eugene and Frances Elizabeth Fowler; son, Michael Fowler; brother, Charles Fowler; sister, Betty Schettler. Survived by his wife, Shirley A. Fowler; sons, Steve (Sandra) Fowler, Mark (Donna) Fowler; daughters, Cindy (Chuck) Vrana, Teresa M. (Brian) McNeil; grandchildren, Haley (Michael) Ketchum, Mallory Fowler, Holly (Corey) Leeper, Austin Taylor, Paul (Sammy) Fowler, Matt (Courtney) Fowler, Audra (Max) Berning, Grace (Josh) Davidson, Molly (Daniel) House; ten great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, a memorial has been established with: Church of the Resurrection Catholic Church, 4910 N. Woodlawn, Bel Aire, KS 67220. Services in care of Downing & Lahey Mortuary - East Chapel.

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