Donor Story

FROM GRIEF FLOWS GENEROSITY

Memorial endowment honors donor’s great love and helps kids beat cancer

By Michelle G. McRuiz

Posted December 1, 2022

Harold “Sandy” Bowers and his late wife Julia had a marriage that, in his words, was planned in heaven. They spent 35 happy years together before she succumbed to cancer on November 24, 2016.

“We were made for each other,” Sandy said. “We fit like a hand in a glove.”

Sandy and Julia met while working at Kerr-McGee Corporation in Albuquerque decades ago. They dated for a couple of years, lived together, and were married on June 11, 2005. Before her death, Julia worked for UNM Hospital for 15 years before resigning from her position to manage her health.

Both Sandy and Julia thought that, because he was older, she probably would outlive him. “We had always planned for her being left behind,” he said.

It was paramount to Sandy that Julia be comfortably taken care of for her entire life, so they committed to investing in the future together. When it became apparent that Julia’s health was failing, Sandy knew it was time for them to complete plans for his idea of an endowment fund. The Julia E. Bowers Memorial Endowment for Pediatric Oncology honors her memory and kindness toward children while contributing to research and treatment for childhood cancer at UNM.

“Julia was joyful that a fund would be set up to fight childhood cancer,” Sandy recalled. “She always had a loving heart for children. Whenever we went to any social gatherings, all the little children would gravitate toward her.

“Her contributions to our investments were an important part of the fund,” he continued. “Her legacy is alive, and I’m honored to share in it. I want this gift to be for research that can bring about some solutions for [pediatric] cancer.”

Although it saddened him to recall the end-of-life planning talks he and Julia had, ultimately, setting up the endowment helped him cope with his loss.

“Overwhelmingly, it gives me great joy to be able to set up this endowment in Julia’s name and to continue annual funding through stocks, IRA required minimum distributions, and annuity funds,” he said.

A former engineer who studied civil engineering with a specialization in photogrammetry at UNM in the late 1950s, Sandy is 82 and still working. He loves children and has driven a bus for Albuquerque Public Schools five days a week since 2006. He hits the road at 6:00 a.m., drives for a few hours, then gets behind the wheel again in the early afternoon. “I’ve been blessed with spiritual energy, a good mind, and well-being,” Sandy said. “I’ve been told I don’t look or get around like an 82-year-old. I take really good care of myself.”

Sandy looks forward to seeing how the fund is used to assist pediatric oncology research and treatment at UNM. Ultimately, he wants to see children beat cancer. That’s more important to him than any worldly rewards.

“I don’t need all the things that money can buy,” he said. “I’m not a worldly guy. I’m an old country boy.”

For more information on the Julia E. Bowers Memorial Endowment for Pediatric Oncology, please contact Amanda Baca, Director of Development for the UNM School of Medicine, at Amanda.Baca@box5584.temp.domains or (541) 914-3112.

For more great stories like this, please click here.