EIGHT - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, June 17, 2020
Library tech Ginger Bowman retires
By April Hilton-Sykes
Students and staff at
Heppner High School will
miss a sweet presence when
they start back to school
next fall. Ginger Bowman,
beloved long-time library
tech there, is retiring this
year. In the midst of the
COVID 19 shutdown, her
retirement wasn’t able to
get much fanfare, because
of school closures, but the
impact will definitely hit
HHS next fall when Ginger
is no longer a fixture.
“I watched my three
children, and many oth-
er children graduate from
Heppner High School,”
said Ginger. “I love this job.
This is why it is so hard to
leave.”
Ginger was born on
the island of Kauai, Ha-
waii, graduating from Kau-
ai High School. She then
moved to the mainland,
attending Oregon College
of Education at Monmouth,
Oregon, now Western Ore-
gon University. After grad-
uating from OCE, she got a
job at Fossil, OR, teaching
English at Wheeler High
School.
She met her husband
to be, Ron Bowman, at a
Fossil high school foot-
ball game. Ron was from
Kinzua and had previously
attended Wheeler High
School. He was working
at the Kinzua Mill at the
time and, when the mill
closed there, later came to
Heppner.
She and Ron were mar-
ried in 1976 in a quiet cere-
mony at a friend’s house in
Fossil. In a few years Ron
and Ginger began to grow
their family. Son Chris was
born in 1982, son Brad in
1984, both at Good Shep-
herd Hospital in Hermiston.
Daughter Jenna came along
in 1990 and was born in
Pendleton. Chris is now
living in Napa, California.
He and his wife, Erin have
a son, Ryker, five, and a
daughter Ayva, six months.
Brad lives in Portland, and
Jenna in Corvallis.
Ginger taught anoth-
er year at Wheeler High
School but came to the re-
alization that she really did
not want to teach. They then
moved to Heppner where
she began working with
kindergarteners at Heppner
Elementary School in Au-
gust of 1980. “I loved work-
ing with those kindergart-
eners,” said Ginger. “They
are so enthusiastic. They
would just do anything for
you.” When she started at
Heppner Elementary, she
first worked half-time with
kindergarten teacher Cherry
Webber and half-time in the
resource room with Kay
Chinen. She worked in that
position for seven years
until the school district cut
the position to half time.
However a full-time posi-
tion as a media specialist
at the Heppner High School
library and an aide became
available, so she took it. “I
found (working with) high
school kids even better
than elementary,” she said.
After the district phased
out media specialists, she
became a library tech in the
mid-90s.
Of plans for retirement,
“Our hope is to be able to
visit our grandchildren,
whom we haven’t seen
since December (because of
COVID 19),” said Ginger.
She also said that she hasn’t
been to Hawaii in six years
and hopes to be able to
travel back to Hawaii with
her husband, children and
grandchildren. “My kids
haven’t met their cousins,
she added. Two of her three
sisters, Pat and Julie, still
live in Hawaii; another
sister, Sandy, lives in North
Carolina. Her husband,
Ron, is now (semi) retired
from Morrow County Grain
Growers Green Feed.
Ginger Bowman
“How grateful I am
for all the students and
New Baby in Your Family?
staff who made this such a
wonderful job,” said Gin-
Engagement?
ger, who was at the school
Wedding?
in the process of packing
We
want
to
share
your life events!
stuff away at the time of her
interview with the Gazette. Stop in the Heppner Gazette office or email us
with details and photos.
“It’s so hard to leave,” she
said tearfully. And she will
All birth, engagement and wedding
announcements are always free!
be dearly missed.
Stefanni McAnnich
188 W Willow Street
will take over the library
Heppner, OR
position in the fall.
editor@rapidserve.net
Owner/Broker David Sykes
Broker Chris Sykes
188 W. Willow
P.O. Box 337
Heppner, OR 97836
25 SW Emigrant
Pendleton, OR 97801
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david@sykesrealestate.net
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541-215-2274
Information deemed correct not guaranteed
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