RIP Bob Bowman Santa Cruz

[norcalmike]

I just found out Bob Bowman, Santa Cruz VW dealer, has passed June 11 2018 at 96 years old.
I had the pleasure of meeting Bob as he visited our little VW meetup last April.
He drove up with a friend of his and chatted it up with us and told us his story.
He purchased the dealership from Irv Gould located at 1800 Soquel ave. Santa Cruz in the 60s and sold it to Lewis in the 70s upon retirement.
I'm grateful i got a chance to meet him.
Im just bummed I had my Lewis frames on my DC instead of my Bob Bowmans.


http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/santacruzsentinel...=189294789

[EverettB]

Thanks for posting, that is cool to know he was even still alive and lived to 96
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[16CVs]

The guy actually had enough interest to stop by a VW event and chat it up. It shows he was in it for more then the money. Back in those days all the VW dealers were the owners name on the front.
My dad worked for VOA in that era and the owners were personable and would generally come out and say hello to my Dad.
Even better is the guy was a Eagle Scout and very civic minded.

RIP Bob.

Stacy
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[Helfen]

" Back in those days all the VW dealers were the owners name on the front"

Not all , but many did have their names on them. Even way back in the 50's some to come to mind were RIVIERA VW in Manhattan Beach Ca. where a friend bought his 58 from there. Aero VW near LAX. etc.

[KTPhil]

Never met him, but googled him and found this link in the SC Sentinal from late last year:

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/veterans/20171110/gratitude-for-world-war-ii-veterans-in-santa-cruz

Found an ad from about the time the dealership apparently opened:

[Abscate]

Can You post that high res or link please ?
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[norcalmike]

[norcalmike]

Here is another photo i found with Jeremy (right), founder of Santa Cruz Type 2s. No, we werent holding hands.
Im pretty sure i have the ugliest DC in the US

[Stockholm VW]

I had to Google Bob Bowman since I just bought my ‘66 that was originally purchased there. Sad to see Mr. Bowman has passed, but glad to see he lived a long life with his VW passion intact. Here’s the frame that’s still on the car.

[BulliBill]

Thanks for posting about Bob Bowman. Nice to know a bit of his history. As my last name is Bowman (no relation to Bob that I'm aware of) I was interested long ago in finding a pair of those Bob Bowman VW dealership plate frames to eventually install on one of my old VWs. It took several years of casual searching but I now have a nice pair of those frames. They will probably end up on my '67 Camper.

I also hunted down a pair of Lee Bowman VW dealership (in Concord, CA) frames too. Damn, I can't believe how much I've spent finding and acquiring related dealership frames for my fleet of eight VWs over the years. Some of my old VWs are now sporting the frames from dealerships that they were initially sold from. Since I don't have records of which dealership it was sold at, at least one of my VW Buses has frames from some VW dealership in the city (possibly the right one?) that I knew it came from.

I sure hope there are no other "Bowman" VW dealerships out there as this plate frame collecting fetish of mine is getting expensive! Rest in peace Bob Bowman! Cool that he achieved the rank of Eagle Scout when he was young, I feel a little closer to him in that I too made it to the rank of Eagle Scout by 16 years old. I wonder how many more of us on theSamba.com are also Eagle Scouts?

If anyone has any period photos of the Bob Bowman dealership, please fell free to post 'em up!

Bill Bowman
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I'm looking for these license plate frames for my fleet:
Coeur D'Alene - Lake Shore Volkswagen
Mission VW - San Fernando
Thornton VW - Stockton

Thanks for any help!

[56Cabrio]

A Bob Bowman plate I once owned.

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