Robert Elmer Bowen

Mr. Robert Elmer (Bob) Bowen, 84 years old, passed away July 17, 2021. Robert was born June 6, 1937 in Wickliffe/Youngstown, Ohio, the son of the late John Elmer and Beulah Elizabeth (Chisholm) Bowen.

Bob graduated with many wonderful classmates from Austintown Fitch High School in 1955 and attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

The IBM office in Youngstown permitted Bob to attend their customer educational classes where he met many local business leaders. It was here that he met, was hired and began his career in the data processing department of Truscon Steel. During this time he joined the United State Marine Corps and served 5 years in the Marine Reserves. IBM contacted Bob and told him of a Manger of Data Processing opening at Saint Elizabeth Hospital which he interviewed for and accepted. He developed and installed their first automated Payroll, Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable systems on IBM punch card unit record equipment.

In 1963 Bob was hired by IBM in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania as a Systems Engineer (SE) in the Office Products Accounting Machines Division. He was assigned a salesman and systems engineering territory in Olean, New York and the Bradford, Pennsylvania area. Several years later he requested a transfer back to the Youngtown IBM office as a Systems Engineer in the General Systems Division to be closer to his family and future wife.

In the late 50's Bob met his wife, Connie, who loved to dance, at the Mural Room, a popular restaurant and dance club in downtown Youngstown, Ohio. Bob and Connie married in 1965. Together they had two precious children, Bonnie and Sean.

After moving to Atlanta in 1979 Bob held various jobs with IBM including Senior Application Development Analyst providing education and support for IBM's manufacturing software called MAPICS, management of its Executive Briefing Center and computer software Market Research, Customer Satisfaction, focus groups and Competitive Analysis. After retirement from IBM in 1993 he helped form and was Vice President of Global Research & Analysis, a market research company, which partnered with The Dieringer Research Group of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

He was affectionately known as “Tata" by his grandchildren, Kylie Nicole and Katelyn Brooke Sager who were his pride and joy. Family was paramount in Bob's life. Bob and his wife, Connie, were inseparable. They both enjoyed taking cruises, traveling throughout Europe and especially meeting his cousins in Northern Ireland (they made sure he knew they were Brits, not Irish) and Connie's cousins in Warsaw and Lublin, Poland. Bob enjoyed planting and tending to his annual vegetable garden and conducting many hours of family Genealogy research.

He was preceded in death by his daughter, Bonnie Kay (Bowen) Sager (2011); sister, Dorothy Jean (Bowen) Irwin (2008); brother-in-law, James A. Irwin, Jr. (2008); nephew, James “Mark” Irwin (1998) and his parents.

Survivors include his wife, Connie A. (Prochak) Bowen on Dunwoody, Georgia; son, Sean R. Bowen of Dunwoody, Georgia, his grandchildren; nephews, Richard Lee Irwin of Canfield, Ohio; John “Scott” Irwin; and several cousins.

The Funeral Mass will be Monday, July 26, 2021 at 11 o’clock at All Saints Catholic Church, 2443 Mount Vernon Rd., Dunwoody, GA 30338. Interment will follow at Arlington Memorial Park. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service at the church.