there was college algebra, solid geometry, analytical geometry, descriptive geometry. “So I went over and I signed up for everything available. That job offered its employees the chance to take after-hours adult education programs through Montgomery Junior College. When Bowser returned from the war, he worked briefly at the Naval Ordinance Lab in White Oak, Maryland. He quickly rose through the ranks and left the Navy almost four years later as a first class petty officer. He also managed equipment that automatically set fuses so they would fly the proper distance before detonating. This involved using early computers (“as big as refrigerators lying on their back” ) to calculate ballistics data. Navy TrainingĪn aptitude test administered during Navy boot camp earned Bowser a position as a fire controlman. After just a few semesters of school, Americans joined the fight in World War II, so Dick Bowser took the opportunity to drop out of school and join the Navy. Harland Bowser, who later became his wife of over 50 years). He enrolled in the engineering school at the University of Maryland, but as he describes it “I was a lousy student.” (Bowser, 1993). His main interests at the time were cars and a young woman he was courting (Nellie G. Dick eventually graduated high school from Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. As Dick grew up, he moved with his family to Florida and then North Carolina for his father's work. people would come up and want that elevator, and see this kid in there running the elevator, and they'd go to the manager and they'd bang on the doors and holler and so forth, because this kid was playing with the elevator." (Bowser, 1993). I would run the elevator, and my father would be on top, to inspect the cables and grease things and so forth. Dick explained what that was like in a 1993 interview with park historian Bob Moore: "At ten years old, I became the helper. Dick was around 10 years old at the time, which was old enough to help his dad with the family business. Virgil leased a machine shop to take over many of the former business's clients personally. When the depression hit in the 1930s, however, the elevator company closed down. Soon after baby Dick entered the world in 1921, Virgil went to work for the Warner Elevator Company. Ruth worked as a schoolteacher before she married, and Virgil held jobs as a pattern-maker and owner of a machine shop. Bowser the experience, skills, and abilities he needed to invent the ingenious tram ride.Ĭhildhood as an Elevator Mechanic's Apprenticeĭick Bowser's parents, Ruth and Virgil Bowser, were both raised on farms in southern Michigan. There is nothing else quite like it anywhere in the world! It was invented in only two weeks by a fascinating young man named Dick Bowser.Ī series of seemingly unrelated events all conspired to give Mr. The Gateway Arch tram system is a one-of-a-kind invention that incorporates components of ferris wheels and elevators in its design. Have you been to the top of the Gateway Arch? If so, you might remember the slightly claustrophobic, gently pivoting futuristic white capsules you rode up in. "It was just very interesting and very flattering that somebody was even thinking about letting me do this." -Dick (Richard) Bowser, about designing the tram system at the Gateway Arch, in an interview with NPS historian Bob Moore in 1993.
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