Former state senator remembered for his tenacity
Bill Bowman
Staff Report
Former state senator Bill Bowman died Saturday at the age of 74. Services will be held Saturday at the United Methodist Church in Bowman. He was a member of the North Dakota State Senate for nearly 30 years, serving as the 39th District’s representative from 1990 until 2018. Born in in the Montana city of Baker in 1946, Bowman grew up in Slope County northwest of Rhame and would later graduate from Dickinson State University in 1970 with a degree in business. He served in the United States Army and also worked as an auctioneer, rancher and farmer. But a former colleague in the state legislature remembered him for being tenacious during his tenure in the cap-
ital city. The republican state legislator from Bowman served on the Agriculture and Human Services committees when he was in Bismarck. Bowman also served as a vice chairman for the Senate Appropriations Committee during part of the 11 sessions he was on the committee. Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner of Dickinson, who attended DSU with Bowman and would later serve in the legislature together, made the announcement Saturday. “I got to know him at Dickinson State. He played football and I was the student manager of the football team.” His education at DSU was interrupted because he had to go into the military, Wardner recalled, noting that was during the military draft and the height of the Vietnam War. Wardner was a senior the year Bowman started as a freshman on the Dickinson campus. It was many years later when they would reconnect in another way – both joining the state legislature in 1990. Wardner was a new representative, while Bowman had knocked off an incumbent to become a new state senator. The districts were laid out differently than they are now, Wardner noted. When the two DSU grads went into the state legislature, the senate district at that time was literally including Billings and Golden Valley along with Slope and Bowman counties, he explained. “We did not see much of each other through the 1970s and 1980s. I knew who he was and he knew who I was, but we didn’t have much contact. “In 1990, he ran for the senate from
District 39. I ran for the house District 37 here in Dickinson. So, we started seeing each other once in a while, on political campaigns and events, and stuff like that. “He had defeated an incumbent – someone who had been around for a while. That tells you about his career (in Bismarck),” the senate majority leader said. “He did a yeoman’s job in getting elected. He worked hard. He was tenacious campaigner. He went after it and that is how his whole legislative life was. “When there were things that he felt were the right things to do, especially when it came to this area of the state, he went after it. He’d keep going until he had accomplished his mission,” his colleague said. Four sessions later, Wardner joined Bowman in the senate. “We’d talk a lot about legislation, especially for southwest North Dakota.” Wardner described the long-time resident of Bowman County as a very tenacious legislator and credited him with helping bring road funds to the county because of the impact oil production vehicles were having on local roads. Wardner also said that Bowman retired in 2018 for health reasons. According to the senate majority leader, Bowman was a strong conservative in Bismarck but treated the other legislators as family. “He wanted to make sure the state’s money was spent very efficiently. I still remember when he was the chairman in Appropriations. He had to do the budget for the Human Services. “If anybody thought that Bill was not caring or was cold hearted, I’ll tell you that man sweated bullets trying to do
what was right for people that was affected and getting benefits from Human Services. He was a very compassionate person, too. “He lost sleep, I remember that,” Wardner explained. “It bothered him when he was unable to take care of all the needs that everybody said that they needed. He really put his whole heart and soul into that budget,” Warnder added. “He was a champion for ag and energy,” he said. He loved agriculture and did a lot of things to help the agriculture industry – not only in southwestern North Dakota. There are many programs that were passed … the extension programs that they have out of NDSU,” he said, citing one example. “One of the buildings – the Diagnostic Center – was named after him. “Rightly so. He was such a supporter of the ag programs and the extensions.” When it came to energy, he also left a big mark, the senate majority leader said. “Bowman County and the Cedar Hills formation, was going much earlier – in 2004. Bowman County had a lot of traffic from the oil activity. The roads in Bowman County were getting really beat up. Bill kept telling everybody that we needed more help. The formula was not sending enough money back to the oil-producing counties. “It just so happened at that time that Bowman was the major one. Bill kept telling people that the roads were getting beat up. “It kind of fell on deaf ears … then the Bakken hit and that changed. All of a sudden everybody understood what Bill was talking about because not only was Bowman County having difficul-
It was Lion King by twilight as the Rhame community went to the movies on a nice summer evening.
Rhame holds burger finale with The Lion King The Rhame Community Club closed out its Burger in the Park summer Aug. 12 with a twilight movie. It was one of Disney’s most popular animate features, The Lion King, which ended the summer of hot dogs, hamburgers, salads and ice cream for the people in Huntington Park. The film was set up on a portable screen in the open area of the park with a projector using power
from the park gazebo. It was part of the Consolidated 2020 summer series of Movie Night in the Park. Before the movie began, there were games for the children with bubble wands going to the winners. It was reportedly the final burger night in the park of the year, according to organizers.
ties maintaining their infrastructure, but so were all of the counties in the Bakken,” Wardner said. That led to the formulae the state had been using to be changed, in lieu of property taxes, he said. The money came back to the oil-producing counties for cities and schools, Wardner explained. “Bill was a major part of that and played a big role in us getting that taken care of.” Ranching was in Bill’s heart, Wardner said. “He understood the importance of research and development. He was a real champion for the Beef Center of Excellence at NDSU,” according to Wardner. The animal diagnostic center at NDSU is a first-class facility – with Bill Bowman’s name on it, he added. There are a lot of federal lands in the Badlands, Bowman County and Slope County and the state was taking it all, Wardner recalled. “Bill fought the fight there and made sure the local political subs got part of that and that it shouldn’t all go to the state of North Dakota. “He wanted to make sure that his constituents were being treated fairly. If there was a theme about Bill, it was that,” Wardner said. “He looked out for his constituents. He would move mountains to make sure that the people in Bowman and in Slope County especially were treated right.” EDITOR’S NOTE: People with photos and stories to tell about Bill Bowman’s impact locally can submit them to pioneerinfo@countrymedia.net for consideration of publication in the next issue of the Bowman County Pioneer.