Bruce Rowe

Dec. 19, 1928 — Sept. 20, 2011

On Sept. 20, Bruce Rowe passed on in Friday Harbor, at the Life Care Center, where he had been for almost a year.

He was born in Everett, Wash., on Dec. 19, 1928 to Doris and Rear Admiral Gordon Rowe.

He attended schools in Hawaii, Panama, and Coronado, Calif., graduating from Broadway High School in Seattle, in 1946.

He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., in 1950. He married Anne Kerry and they had two sons, Bruce and Andrew, and a daughter, Julia.

He flew planes from carriers and was later a gunnery officer on destroyers during the Korean War.

After discharge from the navy, he graduated from the Harvard Business School in 1958, with a masters degree.

He bought a small Seattle business named Van Daal and built it to the largest building materials distributor serving the Northwest and Alaska. He also created Bruce’s Building Materials, with several Ace Hardware stores and manufacturing plants for doors and metal products.

In 1979, he married Joan Huston, a Bellevue teacher and librarian, and after retiring they enjoyed traveling extensively in Japan, China, Mexico, Egypt, Costa Rica, Western Europe, Turkey and Greece, and many times in the South Pacific islands, especially Bruce’s favorite, Bora Bora.

While boating in the San Juans, they decided to move to Cape San Juan, where they have resided for 22 years.

Please join us for a memorial service for Bruce at St. Francis Church on Saturday, Oct. 22, at 11 a.m., followed by a reception and buffet luncheon at Vinnys Restorante.

If you like, remembrances may be made in Bruce’s name to St. Francis Church or to the Lions Club of Friday Harbor.

— Family of Bruce Rowe