COMMUNITY & CLUBS:Happy birthday, Gordon Bowley

Once in a while, an Eagle comes along and you are fortunate if you get a chance to meet him or her, and you are blessed if you can call him a friend. One such Eagle and friend is Costa Mesa resident and business leader Gordon Bowley. Gordon has given his time, talent and treasures to many area organizations, including the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce, Hoag Hospital Foundation, 552 Club, YMCA, St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, Rotary International and Costa Mesa United, to name a few. Gordon has served on many boards of directors, has given his time to raise funds and has been an auctioneer for a large number of charities in Orange County.

Barbara and I have enjoyed many years of friendship with Gordon and his wife, Carol, including in 1980-81 when Gordon served as president of the Rotary Club of Costa Mesa and I was president of the Rotary Club of Newport Newport-Balboa.

Prior to and after our year as club presidents, Gordon and I served on several Rotary District 5320 conference committees. It was always fun to attend a Costa Mesa Rotary Club or Chamber of Commerce fundraiser where Gordon was the auctioneer. He had the ability to extract extra dollars from the attendees like few others. He was fun to be around!

For a number of years, Gordon was invited to the Newport-Balboa’s annual Joke Off. The judges would change each year — four morticians, four CPAs or four IRS agents — folks who normally didn’t smile. Gordon made them laugh and would quite often walk off with top honors.

We are part-time neighbors now at Rancho Las Palmas Country Club in Rancho Mirage. Gordon and Carol got there first and welcomed us the day we moved there in 1999.

I write about Gordon today to celebrate his 70th birthday, which was on June 1. And I write about Gordon to celebrate a community Eagle, one who soars above the crowd with the contribution he or she makes in the way of time, talent and treasure to make our community a better place to live and work. Gordon is an Eagle! Happy birthday, Gordon!

WORTH REPEATING

From the Thought for the Day as provided by Greg Kelley of the Newport Mesa Irvine Interfaith Council … “Be peaceful yourself and you will be able to bring peace to others. A peaceful person does more good than a clever person.”

— THOMAS À KEMPIS