3601 Timberlake - Bowmaster

submitted by Dan Reiff, September 2009
(Summary of a phone conversation with Bob Bowmaster, Sept. 1, 2009)


Wylie Bowmaster and Roma Bowmaster

Wylie and Roma Bowmaster met through the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club. She had been living in Norris with a friend, and then she and Wylie lived in one of the TVA houses for several years. Wylie started working for TVA in 1933, and Bob was born in 1939. When the town of Norris was sold, they had to move, and — about that time — Wylie had learned of the Maloney Heights/Timberlake development from colleagues at TVA (Graves, Hook, Sunstrom). While their house was being built, they rented a house for a while in Alcoa and Bob began third grade at Mount Olive Elementary.

They moved to Timberlake in 1949, when their house was completed enough to move in… still didn’t have walls or doors completed, but the outer structure was done, so they moved in and finished it while they lived in it. Wylie Bowmaster did the general contracting, wired, and mostly built the house himself. The blocks and masonry work were from Fonde & Son Builders. (a son of the builder, Dick Fonde, later went on to be a pilot and Bob knew him through the USAF)

Bob is the oldest of five kids. Vieve, was about three years younger, twins – Don and Dave – were nine years younger. Wylie and Roma Bowmaster realized their daughter, Veive, by about age 3, wasn’t learning to talk, and she was diagnosed with what was then labeled mental retardation. They took her to St. Mary’s for speech therapy and began digging around to see what sorts of services and care options were available for her and others with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  There were basically none. They were horrified to learn of the conditions some other local developmentally challenged children were living in. They heard of a new group forming in Michigan which assisted children who were excluded from public schools. After world war II small groups were springing up around the country and the National Association for Retarded Children (now called The ARC) was formed in 1952. Wylie and Roma Bowmaster founded the East Tennessee chapter. They started the workshop at 3000 North Central in Knoxville, and Wylie used his contacts in the government to get contracts for building office desks. They also found housing and set up the first independent living home with a live-in care-giver. Vieve was one of the first residents. Wylie served as the Tennessee president of ARC from 1954-1956, and also was the national president for term.

Obituary from Knoxville News Sentinel. Source: Timberlake Community Club files

Photo from neighborhood picnic at the home of Virginia and Homer Johnson, 1965. Source: Timberlake Community Club files

Robert (Bob) Bowmaster

Bob Bowmaster’s recollections about the neighborhood (lived at 3601 from 1949 – 1963):

Bob worked for Brockway Crouch at his florist shop on Cumberland during the Christmas rush… never did learn to tie a good bow on the poinsettias. The Crawfords raised Chow dogs… Dr. Potter’s son, Bill, built and flew RC planes. Bob was his “ground crew” and that began his interest in flying.

All the land on the north side of Montlake was undeveloped all the way to the river. He and the other neighborhood kids spent a lot of time playing back in that area. The Blow Mansion was empty and shuttered during the years he lived on Timberlake.  The land on that north end of the peninsula was unwooded farm land, with no other houses around. Almost every house had kids.  Used to shovel loads of manure from the barn on Jones Farm off Alcoa to spread on their lawns. Only a couple of houses along Montlake—another farm he thought was Jones. They carpooled to Mt. Olive until the bus route was altered to included Timberlake. Never remembered there being a yellow center line on the road, but new it before it was paved—had a base of large white gravel 2” chunks.  Several TVA guys carpooled to downtown to work.  Went to Young High School off Chapman, since torn down.

Bob went to UT for a couple years and was in Air Force ROTC. He then transferred to Tennessee Wesleyan and graduated in 1963. With his ROTC background he figured he’d be called as the Vietnam conflict was heating up, so he joined the Air Force to become a pilot. He trained at Lackland, Tucson, George AFB and others, and ended up flying a F4 Phantom in over 140 missions in Vietnam. He was stationed in Ramstein, Germany, for a while then flew as a commercial pilot for Delta for 31 years (retiring in 2000). He now resides in Marietta, Georgia.