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Biography Kenneth W. Fowler was born on September 3, 1918, in Winthrop, Massachusetts, about five and a half miles from Boston. He graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1939. A college roommate, Bradford A. Hixon, introduced him to his sister, Barbara Hixon, whom Fowler eventually married. After graduation, he was hired by his alma mater as an assistant professor. On December 8, 1941, he tried to enlist in the United States Navy but was turned down because a childhood infection had resulted in both mastoids being removed. The doctors believed that a man with no mastoids would not be able to tolerate the noise from heavy naval guns. He worked for at least a year at the Norton Company in Worcester, Mass. Norton manufactured machine parts and was integral to the war effort, but, eventually, Fowler was drafted into the United States Army. He once said that he was asked whether he would prefer the European or the Pacific theater, and he requested Europe. When asked why, he said that he preferred cold to hot weather. Considering what he went through, it is remarkable that he still preferred cold weather to hot when he recalled this many years later. He landed at Normandy more than a week after D-Day and served as an infantryman in the 3rd Armored Division. He stayed with this unit during the rest of 1944. He evidently was among those who entered Aachen on October 21, 1944. Although he served as a private, he also was an acting non-commissioned officer due to attrition. At some point, Fowler was given a temporary assignment as Gen. Omar Bradley's interpreter. Although he did not speak French well enough to be an official interpreter, he spoke it well enough that he was often called upon to gather intelligence from civilians. After a week riding in General Bradley's jeep, he came away with a very favorable impression of the General. Fowler was involved in the six-week-long Battle of the Bulge, or Ardennes Offensive, from December 16 through January 25, 1945. His exact position and when he left the battlefield is uncertain, but after many days of fighting he lost consciousness and only regained it to find himself in a psychiatric ward in London. (His medical diagnosis is unknown but he could have suffered from catatonia related to traumatic stress.) He received an honorable discharge in early 1945 and returned to civilian life. Fowler and his wife, Barbara, adopted three children. He earned an M.B.A. From Boston University and became the building manager of Worcester County Trust, later Worcester County National Bank, in his adopted hometown of Worcester, Mass. He was later promoted to assistant vice-president of the bank and was responsible for the facilities of all locations and branch offices. He died from vascular disease in Worcester on November 3, 1969. |
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