William "Bill" Gowell

Bill slipped away peacefully, into the arms of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on Sunday, May 21, 2023. He was 89.

He was born January 8, 1934 to John (Jack) Leo Gowell and Elizabeth Tilden Gowell in Passaic, New Jersey.

He is preceded in death by his parents and his older brother, Jackie, who passed when Bill was five years old. Bill spent his youngest years in New Jersey and then in Arizona, where his father had a small country store. Bill became quite the young cowboy.

The family later moved to California, where he graduated from high school in Hayward.

From there he enlisted in the Navy, doing his basic training in San Diego. During the Korean conflict, he was a Naval aviation mechanic. He was in the crew that searched for, and discovered the downed plane and all surviving crew members from one of our USN flights that had allegedly been shot down by Russian fighter planes over an island in Alaska.

After leaving the navy, he moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, where he crewed on a fishing boat with Captain Jake from Inlet Harbor.

Bill studied at the former Mary Carl Community College of Daytona Beach in electronics and was employed by RCA and worked on the down range Bahama Islands USAF base tracking stations for NASA's Apollo and Gemini missions.

During this time, he met the love of his life, Joan, and together began their own adventure in happy family life. They moved to Winter Park, Florida, from Freeport, Grand Bahama in 1969.

When RCA left the space program in 1972, Bill found a new job with Walt Disney, Top of The World. He continued into working banquets and conventions where he finally accumulated 24 years with "The Mouse".

After retiring, he and Joan found their spot in the mountains near Murphy, built their house, and created a loving community of many friends and memories for several lifetimes.

Bill is survived by his wife, Joan Gowell of Murphy, older son, Clint Gowell of Daytona Beach; daughter, Kathy Gowell of San Francisco, and son Chris and his wife Keila Gowell of Winter Park, Florida. There are also several cousins, including MaryAnn Opalenik of Forked River, NJ, and Maureen Enstice of Wilmington, NC.

The family requests that any donations in his honor be made to Saint Jude's Children's Hospital, the Shriner's Hospital for Children, or the Valley River Animal Shelter in Marble, NC.

Townson-Rose Funeral Home is in charge of all arrangements.