According to his obituary, Fred Fowler, a prominent figure in the sports media in Houston, has passed away. Fred received his education in Cambridge City, and he ultimately graduated from Lincoln High School in 1948. His education was completed during his time in Cambridge City. Around this time, he became acquainted with Nancy Henley, who lived in the adjacent community of Straughn, Indiana. Nancy Henley was a resident of the state of Indiana. After completing his high school education, Fred decided to sign up for classes at Earlham College, which is situated in Richmond, Indiana.
Fred and Nancy hitched the marriage on October 8, 1950, exactly one year after they had announced their engagement. The ceremony took place in Nancy’s hometown. In the course of the 1930s, Fred’s father made a purchase of a few penny peanut machines with the intention of installing them in local businesses. These machines were intended to be deployed. Beginning with such a modest beginning, a family business that eventually became Fowler Automatic Vending developed into a full-time enterprise during the course of its existence.
With the exception of a brief amount of time spent working as a salesperson for a vending machine manufacturer in the year 1957, Fred was employed by the family business until it was sold in the year 2000. This was the conclusion of Fred’s employment with the family business. From Muncie to Batesville, from Richmond to Greenfield, and virtually every community in between, it had grown to become an enterprise that provided services to industrial plants, hospitals, courthouses, filling stations, bowling alleys, and even restaurants across the state of Indiana by the time it reached its 50th anniversary in 1996.
This expansion occurred as the company had expanded to become an enterprise that served these establishments. In addition to more than fifty staff, it included over two thousand vending machines and industrial cafeterias respectively. Not only was Fred preoccupied with caring for his growing family and maintaining the family business, but he was also highly interested in his community. Despite this, Fred was quite involved in his community. He was a member of the group that was known as the Cambridge City Kiwanis Club.
Furthermore, he was a member of Cambridge City Masonic Lodge #5, where he achieved the 32nd degree of freedom. He was a full member of the lodge. For a number of years, he was also a substantial contributor to Junior Achievement of Eastern Indiana. This was a significant accomplishment for him. The fact that he had been on the board of directors of Wayne Bank & Trust in Cambridge City for a total of 53 years, or until his retirement in 2016, was one of the things that brought him a great deal of pride and interest. He had served on the board until 2016.
Over the course of more than four decades, Fred was a longtime supporter of the basketball team at Indiana University. Furthermore, he delighted in his yearly fishing trip to Canada, which lasted for a week and occurred toward the end of May. He was able to catch a lot of fish during his trip. After driving for twenty-four hours, he would fly to fishing camps with groups of people who had known him his entire life and who were business associates. Before that, he would drive for twenty-four hours. Every year, throughout the month of September, he would spend a week at John Miller’s cabin in Frankfort, Michigan. throughout that time, he would go coho fishing with his childhood friend John Miller, his close friend Dave Martin, and a number of other friends and acquaintances.
