SOWERS, Gordon Alfred - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

Gordon Alfred Sowers, 82, who served as Montgomery County agriculture agent from 1939-1959, died Sunday in Winter Park, Fla. The Sowers Award, which has been given annually since 1966 to a boy who has shown outstanding achievement in 4-H, was named after Mr. Sowers. While in Fountain County he organized and led the first 4-H Club in Mill Creek Township in 1919 and worked continuously with 4-H from then until 1959. He taught school for 16 years at Kingman, was agent in Hendricks County from 1935-38 and agent in Bartholomew County in 1939 before coming to Montgomery County. He served in France during World War I with the Army, was a member of Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church, American Legion, Kiwanis Club, Masonic Lodge and Scottish Rite. Mr. Sowers was a member of Alpha Chapter of Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity and Alpha Lambda Chapter of Epsilon Sigma Phi. He was a graduate of Kingman High School and the University of Illinois in 1917. Born Oct. 13, 1893, at Kingman, he was a son of James and Etta Ratcliff Sowers. He was married to Mattie Schacht in October of 1917. She died in 1972. Surviving are a son, Col. Gordon Thomas Sowers of Winter Park; a daughter, Mrs. Barbara Ecker of Anderson; a sister, Miss Virginia Sowers of Crawfordsville; and five grandchildren. Services will be at 11 a.m. Thursday in Hunt & Son Funeral Home with the Rev. Larimore Wickett officiating. Burial will be in Oak Hill Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home after 2 p.m. Wednesday.   --typed by Walt W