Norm Bowers; Retired Engineer, Outdoorsman

Norm Bowers, an avid tennis player, hiker and retired engineer who lived in Ojai, has died. He was 71.

Bowers moved to Ojai in 1989 after he and his wife of 53 years, Patricia, sold the Northern California travel agency they had owned for 18 years. He quickly became a beloved fixture in the couple’s neighborhood, said his son, Patrick, of San Jose.

“Because he was so mechanical, he was always fixing things around the neighborhood,” Patrick Bowers said. “The neighborhood is scattered with furniture, science projects and little decorative things he made for people.”

Bowers moved to Northern California in 1957 after earning a degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and began a 23-year career with Hewlett-Packard, his son said.

But in 1980, following a six-month trip through Europe, Bowers and his wife decided to open the travel agency, chiefly because they wanted to travel all over the world, his son said.

Bowers maintained a healthy lifestyle, his son said. He played tennis at least three times a week with opponents decades younger than himself, swam 150 laps a day when the weather was good and walked with his wife at least two miles every day along trails near their home.

“He loved the outdoors, which is why he loved Ojai,” Patrick Bowers said. “He was the kind of guy who just never sat still. He’d take a little nap but then get up and go.”

Bowers died suddenly when a poorly constructed porch roof he was fixing at a rental property he owned in nearby Oak View gave way and he fell through, his son said.

In addition to his wife and son, Bowers is survived by another son, Norm, of Mount Shasta City; a daughter, Diane, of San Jose; three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Services are scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday at Clausen Funeral Home in Ojai. Burial will follow at Ivy Lawn Cemetery in Ventura. Visitation at the funeral home is today from noon to 8 p.m.

Memorial donations may be made to HELP of Ojai.