The Blount County Alumni Association is proud to recognize the outstanding contributions of Maryville College alumni and current students. Explore below to see some of their accomplishments!
WILBURN RUFUS BOWERS - CLASS OF 1960
Colonel, United States Marines, Retired
Rufus Bowers was born in Greenback, TN in 1938 and attended Greenback School until 1951 when his family moved to the YMCA Camp at Montvale in the Chilhowee Mountains. Rufus attended Everett High School and graduated in 1956. While at Everett, he played football for four years and was captain of the high school safety patrol which saw to the safety of students crossing the many streets around Everett High School.
He organized and led the honor guard for the high school band. On his 17th birthday, he joined the Marine Corps Reserve in Knoxville and continued with the Reserve Unit through high school and while at Maryville College. While attending Maryville College, he joined the Marines Platoon Leaders Class that eventually lead to a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the US Marine Corps Reserve.
While attending Maryville College, he majored in physical education and played football for four years. He was co-captain of the team in 1959-60 season. He graduated from Maryville College in 1960. He married the love of his life and forever partner at the beginning of his sophomore year. Thanks to his wife, Paula, "Polly" Cox from Philadelphia, PA who graduated 3rd in her class of 1958, Rufus graduated with a BA in physical Education, a teaching certificate from the State of Tennessee, a commission as a Second Lieutenant and no debt. One other fact, thanks to Polly, Rufus found out where the College library was.
From Maryville College, Rufus went on active duty in the US Marines and remained valid for 28 1/2 years. He started as a 17 year old private at the 6th Engineering Company in Knoxville on 06 March 1955. After 33 years, total Marine Corps time, he came back to the Marine Reserve Unit in Knoxville and was retired. He closed the Marine circle where he started.
His active duty in the Marine Corps started at Camp LeJejune, North Carolina where he served as a rifle platoon commander in a rifle company and later as a weapons' platoon commander. During his time with the rifle company, he was deployed in the Caribbean five times. Two of these deployments took him to Guantanamo Bay on guard duty where he met Raul Castro and Che Guevara on the fence line and had about a thirty minute conversation with Castro. Guevara said nothing, he was in Cuba for the Cuban Missile Crisis in October-December 1962. On the ground and across the world, times were tense.
After leaving the rifle company, Rufus was assigned as the assistant intelligence officer as a Brigade Staff Officer and deployed to the Caribbean again and when the Dominican Republic and Haiti were in conflict with each other and causing much unrest in the area.
Rufus then attended the US Army Counter Intelligence School at Fort Holabird, MD for six months. After school, he served in North Carolina and California in counter intelligence roles. Then in 1966, he went to Vietnam and commanded the 3rd Counter-intelligence team. After 13 months in Vietnam, Rufus was assigned to the Marine Barrack Cecil Field, FLA as executive officer and later commanding officer providing security for the Naval Air Station weapons department. Then in 1971, now Major Bowers was assigned to US Marine Amphibious Warfare School (AWS) in Quantico, VA for six months. After AWS, he received orders to Korea with the United Nations Military Armistice Commission (UNMAC), charged with the "peace" talks at Panmunjom. Bowers’ primary job in the UNMAC was to investigate violation of the armistice agreement in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea. The DMZ is 4,000 meters wide with 2,000 meters on both the North and South side. Because DMZ was considered a war zone, Major Bowers was the only US Marine in Korea being paid combat pay of an additional $55.00 per month. In December 1971, he was assigned to conduct a ground to ground photographic mission of all North Korean positions in the DMZ. Major Bowers, a Republic of Korea (ROK) Marine captain and a US Army photographer Sgt 1st class started on the West Coast of Korea on 12 Dec. 1971 and photographed 154 miles of the DMZ from West to East. The mission was completed on 15 April, 1972. The photos were shown to the UN in New York and North Korea was denied entry into the United Nations. Korea is cold and rough, hats off to all the men who fought there.
After 12 months in Korea, Major Bowers was assigned to Camp Pendleton, CA and to the 4th Marine Division as the Assistant Chief of Staff Comptroller for two years. Thanks to a lot of good Marines, he never showed "red" in the books. He was then selected as Staff Secretary for the 4th Marine Division where he was responsible to assure the quality of any written material going to the Chief of Staff--a Marine Colonel and Two Star General in command. It was a challenging job where 54 staff members wanted their project signed off by the Chief of Staff or the General. All paperwork had to come across Rufus' desk to proofread and correct errors. This was in the days of no computers and only manual typewriters. Major Bowers successfully fulfilled this task for 18 months.
He was then assigned to the 1st Marine Division and further assigned as Executive Officer (XO) of an infantry battalion, 2nd Battalion 5th Marines. There he spent three wonderful years as XO and Commanding Officer (CO) of 1242 Marines, the "trigger pullers". The infantry is what the Marines are!
While in the infantry battalion, Major Bowers was promoted to LT. Colonel. After the battalion, he was sent to Armed Forces Staff College (AFSC) in Norfolk, VA. Here, he learned to work with other branches of the military and learned of their missions and operations.
Graduation from AFSC, The Marine Corps sent him back to Korea. This time it was an accompanied tour and his wife, Polly, got to go where they spent two years, 1978-80. LT. Colonel Bowers became the Operations Officer of the US Naval Staff Korea. The hours were long and constantly dealing with daily crisis.
In 1980, Rufus received orders to the Philippines and the Marine Barracks Subic Bay Naval Base. He was XXO for two years and then promoted to Colonel and became the CO for the remaining two years of this tour. He commanded 750 Marines and was the senior Marine in the Philippines. Besides working hard, both he and Polly enjoyed what this country had to offer, loved the people and during their stay visited almost all the islands in this archipelago.
Duty called once again, and Colonel Bowers returned to Southern California. Upon arrival in California, Rufus was tasked as the training officer for the First Force Service Regiment (FSSG), which provided the "beans, bullets, and bandages" to the gun fighters.” After about three months, Col. Bowers was sent to 29 Palms. CA to the 7th Marine Expeditionary Force to led up the Embarkation Command Group. This group was to plan for and load ships that were assigned to Maritime Pre-position Ships-2 (MPS2). MPS is a program that distributes ships and war fighting material over the world for quicker response. After a year of planning and preparation, this group of Marines went to Wilmington, NC and five ships were loaded in record time, plus unloading and reloading three other ships with updated equipment. It was a most enlightening assignment and very meaningful to see the planning and work come together successfully with no injuries.
After loading the ships, Col. Bowers was directed to assume command of DET-A 1stFSSG at 29 Palms and Brigade Service Support Group (BSSG-7) for the 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigades. Two jobs--one Colonel.
The DET was 750 Marines with 300 of them Women Marines. This was a first for Rufus. These women Marines outworked the men with their quality of repair and rebuild of equipment. The BSSG-7 was charged with providing the 7th MAB with "beans, bullets and bandages." Col. Bowers was blessed to have good Marines who knew the maintenance and logistics of helping fellow Marines in combat.
Col. Bowers’ final duty station was New Orleans, LA. He was back with the 4th Marine Division, US Marine Reserve as the Operations and Training Officer, G-3. He was responsible for the training and operations of Marine Reservists in 65 different locations in the United States. It was a most interesting job and Col. Bowers was pleased with the Reserve Marines units as to how they could plan and cooperate and yet be so physically far apart. Col. Bowers retired in 1988. When Desert Storm launched 98% of the woman Marine Reserve answered the call and 92% of the male reservists went active. These were Marines he had helped train and prepare for that call to arms
Col. Bowers was retired on 01 July 1988 at the same place he started at the 6th Engineer Company US Marine Reserve Center in Knoxville, TN. It only took 33 years and 3 months to come home. It was a good career with lots of great memories.
While on active duty with a busy workload and family, Col. Bowers managed to be involved with youth sports coaching baseball, football and co-founding sports to suit the community needs. He taught youth Sunday school and was a church lay leader. He was president of the Fallbrook Union High School PTA.
While stationed in Korea in 1978-1980, the Bowers were active in the Chapel program. They founded The Couples of the Chapel. It was a program for all denominations where couples met for two hours a month for a meal and social events. In 1980, they founded a similar program on the US Naval Station Subic Bay, Philippines and it was still going strong when we left in 1984. While in the Philippines, Col. Bowers was the athletic director of all sports on base.
They were active in a deaf orphanage for two years in Korea, August 1978 to August 1980. In Korea a child was considered imperfect if s/he was born deaf or became deaf. The child was shunned and placed in the orphanage. From 1978 until 2020, we supported the orphanage financially, for 42 years. In 2020, their check was returned with a letter stating that the orphanage no longer needed financial aid. The Korean people no longer shunned their deaf children and were now part of the family. PRAISE GOD!
They also supported a deaf orphanage in the Philippines located in a remote mountain jungle area. Thank God we brought their situation to the attention of the United States Air Force as they took over the support and care of this orphanage.
After retiring and moving back to East Tennessee, God’s Country, they continued their work in the church. From many years, Rufus helped cook a hot meal for the citizens of Blount County, called Welcome Table at New Providence Presbyterian Church. Polly was involved with the women’s fellowship group. I Rufus is also a member of the local chapter of the American Legion Post 13 and AmVets Post 22. For over 15 years, we both volunteered at Maryville College during its annual KT Week, Alumni Give Back. Rufus did light construction and Polly worked in archives preserving the college’s history. In the 1990’s, Rufus was asked to be the guest speaker at the annual Memorial Day observance in Blount County.
Rufus and Polly were a great team together and tried their best to contribute any place they were stationed no matter the length of the stay. Their efforts were always rewarded by the Lord our God.
After active military service, Rufus worked as the Director of Security for a nuclear power plant in Delta, PA., followed by five years as the dairy manager in a local grocery store after having moved back to Fallbrook, CA. His last "paying" job was as cruise director of a Russian Cruise ship traveling the waters of Russia for two years. He was the only non-Russian on the ship's crew. When his cruising was over, he started as a volunteer with the San Diego Sheriff's department and started a different kind of cruising. He carried out patrol duties including visiting the sick and shut in, checking on homes of vacationing residents, directing traffic, crowd control, fire evacuation, and other such duties as directed. Rufus was runner-up for San Diego County Veteran of the year. Together with Polly helping, these were the various programs they started or worked with in Fallbrook:
· A reading program for Latino children grades 1-8.
· Co-founded pop warner football league
· Starting the local food bank.
· On the Board of Directors for the Fallbrook Community Clinic.
· Senior Volunteer Patrol for the San Diego Sheriff’s Department. I worked as a volunteer for 19 years visiting shut ins, directing traffic, checking on homes for vacationing residents, crowd and traffic control for special events in Fallbrook, patrolled evacuated residences during natural disasters, transported Sheriff reports to the DA’s office in Vista, CA five days a week, and any other duties needed. Polly was a receptionist at the Sheriff’s office sub-station for eight years.
· We both were elders for four years in the Fallbrook Presbyterian Church. I was deacon for one year. We headed up the greeters team and served as greeters for eight years.
· I started the Bread for Veterans program and ran it for five years.
· Honorary Mayor of Fallbrook where Rufus personally raised funds to install and put up 77 flags on Main St in downtown Fallbrook and 24 flags in the downtown square for all major holidays. The flags still fly today.
· Co-founded the Veterans’ Day parade in 2000 and it still is going today.
· Co-founded the 9-11-01 Remembrance Day Program which is still conducted today. I was the first speaker for the 9-11, Three Bells Ceremony, on Remembrance Day.
· Very active in the local VFW. Cooked a meal once a month which raised needed funds for veterans.
· In 2016, Rufus was asked to return and be the grand marshal of the annual Christmas parade.
Decorations, citations, medals, badges, campaign ribbons awarded:
Legion of Merit w/gold star (two awarded)
Bronze Star Medal w/combat “V”
Meritorious Service Medal
Joint Services Commendation Medal
Combat Action Ribbon
Organized Marine Corps Reserve Medal
Presidential Unit Citation (three awards)
Meritorious Unit Commendation Medal (three awards)
National Defense Service Medal
Vietnam Service Medal (three awards)
Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal
Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (two awards)
Humanitarian Service Medal
Overseas Service Ribbon (6 awards)
Republic of Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation Gallantry Cross Color W/palm frame
Republic of Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation Civil Action Color 1st Class
Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
Combat Infantry Badge awarded by the President of the Philippines.
Orange Heart: for veterans w/agent orange sickness
Distinguished Service Medal: Daughters of American Revolution
Russian Distinguished Service Medal: For promoting of Russian and American Culture
At the end of the day, my greatest reward has been service to my fellow man and woman. I hope my efforts have made a difference in the lives of others. All in all, I think in my life I have "done good on the largest scale possible". Thank you for choosing me as the Spotlight Alumni and for letting me share my story with you.