While he may have considered other careers while he was growing up, there was little doubt that Joe Fowler would eventually go into banking.
After all, he was born into the largest banking family in the state of Kansas — at least it was back in 1935-36.
Fowler, Pittsburg, was associated with Citizens Bank of Weir throughout his career, first assisting his father, the late Bill Fowler, who was bank president, and later becoming president himself. That has now come to an end.
“I sold the bank on the day before Halloween, which was kind of fitting,” Fowler said.
He said the bank was purchased by a Topeka-based investment group.
“The new CEO is Mike Townsend,” Fowler said. “He’s really a nice guy, and he’ll do good. He’s asked me to be available for a while as a consultant.”
The Fowler banking dynasty started with his grandfather, James T. Fowler, who organized the Home State Bank in Arcadia in 1908.
“My grandfather, who I called ‘Dad,’ was a different kind of guy,” Fowler said. “When he was only 17 who went to Spokane, Wash., and then to Montana. He told me that he’d gotten into an argument with his father working out in the fields. His father told him to go to work or get out. Dad said, ‘I packed a grip, strapped on a .44 and went west’. I asked him once if he’d ever seen a gun fight while he was out west, and he said that just happened in the movies. If they were mad, they just shot each other in the back.”
After coming back to southeast Kansas, his grandfather and his brother opened a general mercantile establishment in Arcadia.
“The store had the only safe in town, so they decided they might as well start a bank,” Fowler said.
His grandfather first married Olive Lightle and they had five children. Sadly, she died early, and he later married Ada Davenport, who not only raised the five older children but gave birth to nine more babies, including Fowler’s father.
“I went to first grade in Arcadia, at the building that was later called Brick Mountain,” he said. “My teacher was Miss Hinkle.”
He and his parents, Bill and Wadean Fowler, moved to Weir in 1950 or 1951, when the Fowlers had the bank there.
He had good years growing up in Weir, though he had a frightening experience around 1959 when the bank was robbed.
“The robbers came to the house,” Fowler said. “I was 16, and my good friend Wendell Wilkinson and I had gone to Columbus to a ball game, and when we got back, we spent about an hour in the kitchen. The robbers were holding my mom hostage in the living room, but we didn’t know it. After Wendell left, my father came home and the robbers came down the hall with my mother. They took us to the bank. Dad got the vault open, and locked us in the vault. There were safety latches on the vault door, so we were locked in, and the robbers were locked out.”
There was also a telephone in the vault, which the robbers hadn’t noticed.
“They were probably as nervous as we were,” Fowler said. “The first person my father called was Ned Naylor, then he called Bob Kapler, who got a shotgun and was going to catch the robbers, but they were long gone. They never did get caught.”
The Fowlers were in the vault a couple of hours before they were rescued.
“My mother was afraid to be left alone for the rest of her life,” Fowler said. “Readers Digest wanted to write a story about us, but she wouldn’t let them.”
After getting out of Wentworth Military Academy, he attended Pittsburg State University.
“This was in 1963, and I was very aware of Vietnam,” Fowler said. “I enlisted in the Air Force, but flunked the physical. Then the U.S. Army said that if the Air Force didn’t want me, they didn’t either. I went to work with my father.”
He said that his mother, who had worked at family banks in Arcadia, Arma and Weir, ran the Fowler Insurance Agency.
“She ran it until the week before she died,” he said. “I went to see her in the hospital, and she had all these papers all over her bed. I said, ‘Mom, take a break,’ and she said, “Somebody has to take care of these people’.”
Wadean Fowler died 12 years ago.
“After that, Dad was semi-retired and I pretty much ran the bank,” Fowler said. “He died two years ago.”
In addition to his banking career, he served on the Kansas Fish and Game Commission, including a time as chairman, became a licensed pilot and was involved in Democrat politics.
“I was a Democrat banker in Kansas, if you want to try something hard,” Fowler said.
But he crossed party lines to support Republican Lynda Wilkinson in her 2004 bid for the Kansas Senate.
“Lynda is very intelligent, very capable, and there’s no reason I wouldn’t support her,” Fowler said. “I walked beside her in a Weir Homecoming parade. I’d had a stroke in 2003, and one of my Republican bank customers said, ‘Joe, that stroke did you some good, you’ve gone over to the right side’.”
His uncle, David Fowler, was retired but came to help after Fowler had his stroke.
“I had good help, and we kept the bank going,” he said.
Finally, though, Fowler made the difficult choice to quit.
“The time just flew by,” he said. “It was hard to give it up. There were things in the bank from my grandfather’s bank in Arcadia, and they’re now in storage.”
He said he has no special plans for retirement, though the new Citizens Bank of Weir CEO has asked him to be available as a consultant for a while, and he intends to do that.
His wife, Suzie, thinks it would be nice to travel and visit their four children — Bill in Denver, Ben in San Diego, Hannah in New York City and Clay in Miami Beach, Fla.
“I’ve never been to San Diego,” Fowler said. “Maybe I should visit Ben.”
“You see?” Mrs. Fowler said. “Retirement life will be good.”
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While he may have considered other careers while he was growing up, there was little doubt that Joe Fowler would eventually go into banking.
After all, he was born into the largest banking family in the state of Kansas — at least it was back in 1935-36.
Fowler, Pittsburg, was associated with Citizens Bank of Weir throughout his career, first assisting his father, the late Bill Fowler, who was bank president, and later becoming president himself. That has now come to an end.
“I sold the bank on the day before Halloween, which was kind of fitting,” Fowler said.
He said the bank was purchased by a Topeka-based investment group.
“The new CEO is Mike Townsend,” Fowler said. “He’s really a nice guy, and he’ll do good. He’s asked me to be available for a while as a consultant.”
The Fowler banking dynasty started with his grandfather, James T. Fowler, who organized the Home State Bank in Arcadia in 1908.
“My grandfather, who I called ‘Dad,’ was a different kind of guy,” Fowler said. “When he was only 17 who went to Spokane, Wash., and then to Montana. He told me that he’d gotten into an argument with his father working out in the fields. His father told him to go to work or get out. Dad said, ‘I packed a grip, strapped on a .44 and went west’. I asked him once if he’d ever seen a gun fight while he was out west, and he said that just happened in the movies. If they were mad, they just shot each other in the back.”
After coming back to southeast Kansas, his grandfather and his brother opened a general mercantile establishment in Arcadia.
“The store had the only safe in town, so they decided they might as well start a bank,” Fowler said.
His grandfather first married Olive Lightle and they had five children. Sadly, she died early, and he later married Ada Davenport, who not only raised the five older children but gave birth to nine more babies, including Fowler’s father.
“I went to first grade in Arcadia, at the building that was later called Brick Mountain,” he said. “My teacher was Miss Hinkle.”
He and his parents, Bill and Wadean Fowler, moved to Weir in 1950 or 1951, when the Fowlers had the bank there.
He had good years growing up in Weir, though he had a frightening experience around 1959 when the bank was robbed.
“The robbers came to the house,” Fowler said. “I was 16, and my good friend Wendell Wilkinson and I had gone to Columbus to a ball game, and when we got back, we spent about an hour in the kitchen. The robbers were holding my mom hostage in the living room, but we didn’t know it. After Wendell left, my father came home and the robbers came down the hall with my mother. They took us to the bank. Dad got the vault open, and locked us in the vault. There were safety latches on the vault door, so we were locked in, and the robbers were locked out.”
There was also a telephone in the vault, which the robbers hadn’t noticed.
“They were probably as nervous as we were,” Fowler said. “The first person my father called was Ned Naylor, then he called Bob Kapler, who got a shotgun and was going to catch the robbers, but they were long gone. They never did get caught.”
The Fowlers were in the vault a couple of hours before they were rescued.
“My mother was afraid to be left alone for the rest of her life,” Fowler said. “Readers Digest wanted to write a story about us, but she wouldn’t let them.”
After getting out of Wentworth Military Academy, he attended Pittsburg State University.
“This was in 1963, and I was very aware of Vietnam,” Fowler said. “I enlisted in the Air Force, but flunked the physical. Then the U.S. Army said that if the Air Force didn’t want me, they didn’t either. I went to work with my father.”
He said that his mother, who had worked at family banks in Arcadia, Arma and Weir, ran the Fowler Insurance Agency.
“She ran it until the week before she died,” he said. “I went to see her in the hospital, and she had all these papers all over her bed. I said, ‘Mom, take a break,’ and she said, “Somebody has to take care of these people’.”
Wadean Fowler died 12 years ago.
“After that, Dad was semi-retired and I pretty much ran the bank,” Fowler said. “He died two years ago.”
In addition to his banking career, he served on the Kansas Fish and Game Commission, including a time as chairman, became a licensed pilot and was involved in Democrat politics.
“I was a Democrat banker in Kansas, if you want to try something hard,” Fowler said.
But he crossed party lines to support Republican Lynda Wilkinson in her 2004 bid for the Kansas Senate.
“Lynda is very intelligent, very capable, and there’s no reason I wouldn’t support her,” Fowler said. “I walked beside her in a Weir Homecoming parade. I’d had a stroke in 2003, and one of my Republican bank customers said, ‘Joe, that stroke did you some good, you’ve gone over to the right side’.”
His uncle, David Fowler, was retired but came to help after Fowler had his stroke.
“I had good help, and we kept the bank going,” he said.
Finally, though, Fowler made the difficult choice to quit.
“The time just flew by,” he said. “It was hard to give it up. There were things in the bank from my grandfather’s bank in Arcadia, and they’re now in storage.”
He said he has no special plans for retirement, though the new Citizens Bank of Weir CEO has asked him to be available as a consultant for a while, and he intends to do that.
His wife, Suzie, thinks it would be nice to travel and visit their four children — Bill in Denver, Ben in San Diego, Hannah in New York City and Clay in Miami Beach, Fla.
“I’ve never been to San Diego,” Fowler said. “Maybe I should visit Ben.”
“You see?” Mrs. Fowler said. “Retirement life will be good.”
