Charles Bennie Bowen, Jr., servant of God, was called home to our Lord on Saturday, June 30, 2007, at Tift Regional Medical Center. He was 81 years old and a native of Tifton. Services will be held at the First United Methodist Church at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, July 2, 2007. Rev. Glenn Martin will officiate with interment to follow at Oak Ridge Cemetery. Pallbearers will be Bill McCranie, Buck McCranie, Ike Kent, Bill Reinhardt, John Reinhardt, and Rob Reinhardt. The Beacon Sunday School Class of Tifton’s First United Methodist Church will serve as honorary pallbearers. The family will receive friends at Bowen-Donaldson Home for Funerals on Sunday, July 1, 2007, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Born October 25, 1925 in Tifton, he was the son of the late Charles Bennie Bowen, Sr. and the late Margaret Toney Bowen. He was graduated as the 1942 Valedictorian of Tifton High School and studied chemical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He served in the United States Navy during World War II and spent his career in family businesses and real estate.
His life’s work and passion was the study of the Bible and the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A life-long member of Tifton’s First United Methodist Church, he taught an adult Sunday School class for nearly 50 years. Since 1971, he had been the teacher of the Beacon Class.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his wife of 43 years, Mary Kneece Bowen. Survivors include two sons, Charles Bennie Bowen, III of Atlanta and Robert Grady Bowen of Jacksonville, Florida; and a daughter, Mary Elizabeth Bowen Miller of Thomasville; three grandchildren, Madison Elizabeth Miller, Catherine Anne Miller and Bowen Pomeroy Miller, all of Thomasville; a sister, Margaret Bowen Crenshaw of Phoenix, Arizona; and several nieces and nephews.