SHAWN BOWMAN, 28, FATHER,
CANTOR FITZGERALD EMPLOYEE
Posted Sep
11, 2010
Date of Death 9/11/2001
By Frank Donnelly
Advance staff writer
Friday, 09/28/2001
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Shawn Edward Bowman Jr. wasn't an early riser by
nature, but each morning he got up before dawn to shower and dress his
16-month-old son, Liam Edward.
The 5 a.m. wake-up call gave the Sunnyside resident precious time with
Liam before work and let his wife, Jennifer, sleep a few more minutes. Mrs.
Bowman is pregnant with the couple's second child.
Mr. Bowman, 28, a human resources information specialist for Cantor
Fitzgerald on the 104th floor of Tower 1, is among the missing in the Sept. 11
terrorist attack.
"He was a very devoted father and husband," said his
mother-in-law, Jacqueline Davitt. "And as a mother-in-law I could not have
asked for anyone to be nicer to my daughter."
A lifelong Staten Islander, Mr. Bowman was a model employee who reported
to work an hour early each day. Among his duties, he trained colleagues in the
use of special software.
"He wanted to make sure everything he did, he did well," Mrs.
Davitt said. As dedicated as he was to his job, which required frequent travel
to Europe, Mr. Bowman was even more devoted to his family.
He was little Liam's special playmate. He devoted Saturdays to treks to
McDonald's for pancakes and walks in Clove Lakes Park. Weeknights were reserved
for romps on the floor.
"His son was everything," Mrs. Davitt said.
The day before the attack, Mr. Bowman left work early to bring Liam to
the doctor's office. He and his wife were planning a trip to the Bronx Zoo with
Liam to celebrate Mr. Bowman's 29th birthday on Sept. 16.
"He will live through my daughter, but it's a shame his children
will never know how wonderful their father was," said Mrs. Davitt.
"He will be sorely missed and our lives will never be the same."
Mrs. Bowman is due to give birth in January. The child will be named
Jack, after a character in Tom Clancy novels that Mr. Bowman enjoyed reading.
Mr. Bowman was especially fond of mysteries and political accounts and
devoured every copy of the New York Times and Barron's newspapers.
He also enjoyed cooking and was an Eagle Scout. He was active with Pouch
Camp, Sea View, and with Troop 43 of St. John's Episcopal Church, Rosebank.
Born in New Dorp, Mr. Bowman moved to Arden Heights in 1999. In April,
he and his wife moved into his mother-in-law's Sunnyside residence while they
awaited construction of a new home in Columbus, N.J.
He was a graduate of Monsignor Farrell High School and the State
University of New York at Albany, where he received bachelor's and master's
degrees in business administration.
Following graduation, Mr. Bowman worked as a human resources information
specialist for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in Manhattan. He often traveled to
the company's overseas offices to train colleagues in special software use. Mr.
Bowman was a parishioner of Our Lady of Good Counsel R.C. Church,
Tompkinsville, where he was married on April 17, 1999.
Surviving in addition to his wife, the former Jennifer Davitt, and his
son, Liam Edward, are his parents, Carol and Shawn E. Sr.; a brother, James,
and his maternal grandmother, Anne Barbieri.
There will be a memorial mass tomorrow at noon in Our Lady of Good
Counsel Church. The Rev. Joseph Mostardi, the former pastor, will officiate,
wearing vestments Mr. Bowman's family purchased for him.
The Harmon Home for Funerals, West Brighton, is handling the
arrangements.
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Even as a grown man of 28, Shawn E. Bowman Jr. was still a
Boy Scout. Just about every Friday night, he came to Staten Island's Troop 43
meeting in his khaki pants and beige shirt festooned with patches and medals.
When the boys' energy flagged, he would break out into his favorite skit,
"Bananas," shouting, "Bananas of the world, unite!"
"He almost lived and breathed it," said Gil Schweiger, the ranger at
Pouch Camp, a camp for Boy Scouts in Staten Island, who had known Mr. Bowman
ever since he was a 7-year-old signing up to earn his first patch.
The boy became an Eagle Scout, then an assistant scoutmaster, passing along
what he had learned — everything from how to tie a knot to how to tell the
truth.
His day job, human resources information specialist at Cantor Fitzgerald, was a
source of pride, but his real joy was scouting; he relished the prospect of
passing it along to his son, Liam, now 2, and a second son, Jack, who had not
yet been born on Sept. 11. "He tried to pass what he learned from scouting,"
Mr. Schweiger said. "They looked up to him. The boys still do."
Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on September 1, 2002.
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Shawn Bowman was a relative and my god-father's grandson - so I wanted to honor him today: September 11th.
