On Friday, May 7 ^th , 2021, Robert Brooke Bowling passed away from kidney failure surrounded by his wife and children at his home in Roland Park.  He was 82 years old.

Mr. Bowling was the last surviving son of the late Frederick Thomas Bowling, Jr. and Lucille M. Bowling (nee McClanahan).  Like his older brother, the Rev. Frederick Thomas Bowling, III, and younger brother, John Gordian Bowling, he was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up just north of downtown, in the leafy suburb of Roland Park.  As a boy, he attended Roland Park Elementary.  He loved visiting his grandparents, Fred T. Bowling and Amelia Brooke Bowling, at their tobacco farm in Southern Maryland, and spending summer vacations at the ocean with his family.  As a teenager, Mr. Bowling attended Calvert Hall College in downtown Baltimore (Class of 57) under the tutelage of the Christian Brothers.  Always industrious, he began his career while still a student, landing his first retail job at Hahn Shoes, followed by a position with The Hecht Company selling women's furs.  After graduating high school, Mr. Bowling joined the Army, then pursued studies at The Johns Hopkins University before transferring to The University of Alabama, where he was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.

After college, Mr. Bowling accepted a position with the J.C. Penney Company in Miami, Florida.  He would go on to work at their Fort Myers store, yet it was not long before his abilities as a merchant and sharp eye for design caught the attention of J.C. Penney's top brass.  Relocating to Manhattan in the dead of winter, he became an international buyer for Penney's corporate office, specializing in fabrics, notions, and piece goods.  It was in New York, that he met and married his wife, Bonnie.  He travelled extensively throughout the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and South Korea, and was part of the first wave of American businessmen to engage in trade with Mainland China during the Nixon administration's historic opening of business channels between the two countries in the early 1970s.  Mr. Bowling would continue to trade throughout the Far East for the next 30 years.  Upon leaving J.C. Penney, Mr. Bowling brought his expertise to positions with Fabri-Centers of America Inc. in Cleveland, OH, and Rockland Industries in Baltimore, MD; to the establishment of his own company, Chesapeake Bay Trading; and finally, to a partnership with Le Lace Factory, Inc. in New York City.

Mr. Bowling will be remembered for his kindness, creativity, and wonderful sense of fun.  He had a gift for finding beauty and wonder in world around him, and nurtured numerous interests that he shared with family and friends, not least of which included a lifelong love of travel and spending time on the water.  Above all, he cherished his family.  He is survived by his wife of 49 years, Bonnie; children, Amanda Brooke and John Gordian; son- and daughter-in-law, John Reynolds and Bridgett Bowling; brother-in-law, Ken Bonzak; and cousins, Angela Mantzouris and Douglas Reaves.