Remembering Charlie Bowles

Charles J. Bowles was born in Norwood, Massachusetts on March 15, 1917. He signed with the Beckley Bengals – a Tigers farm club – of the Class D Mountain State League in 1937 and posted a 16-7 record in 27 outings. He spent the next two seasons with the Welch Miners of the same league and joined the Monroe White Sox of the Class C Cotton States League in 1940.

Gradually clawing his way up the minor league ladder, Bowles reached the Class B Interstate League in 1942 and was 10-12 with the Lancaster Red Roses. In 1943 he had by far his best season as a minor leaguer, winning 19 games against 14 losses for the Red Roses and earning a September call-up to the Philadelphia Athletics.

Bowles made his major league debut on September 25, making two starts before the season ended for a 1-1 record.

Bowles entered military service on November 2, 1943. He passed the Air Corps Potential Air Cadet Exam shortly after he was inducted at Fort Thomas, Kentucky, then took basic training at Miami Beach where he was classified a Physical Training Instructor. He was assigned to Walker Field in Victoria, Kansas - a training center for Boeing B-29 Superfortress crews - during which time Hank Greenberg passed through before being assigned to the China-Burma-India Theater. The command (along with Bowles) was later moved to Colorado Springs and became the Second Air Corps under the command of General Curtis LeMay.

Bowles described LeMay as “a real stickler for rules and regulations, but fair. My duty as an instructor was to teach air crews to swim and to tread water should they get shot down over the ocean.

"When the crews were not on flying missions they were compelled to have daily exercise programs. In the fall, they played touch football, volleyball or badminton. During the winter, it would be basketball, in the spring, softball and baseball. The crews enjoyed it all."

After military service he returned to the Athletics at the tail end of 1945 and posted an 0-3 record in eight games.

Over the next couple of years he played in the minors for Lancaster, Atlanta and St. Petersburg, before joining the Palatka Azaleas as a player-manager. Bowles went on to manage Salisbury, Waterbury, Granite Falls and Hickory, a North Carolina State League, where he worked as a sportswriter. When he was in his seventies he accepted the position of pitching coach at Lenoir Rhyne College in North Carolina.

Charlie Bowles, who had headed the maintenance department of Century Furniture Company for 22 years, passed away at a hospice center in Hickory, North Carolina on December 23, 2003. He was 86 years old.