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Retired teacher helps people to see Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Chet Bowser has helped hundreds of children and low-income elderly see and hear better as Central Point patient care chairman for the Southern Oregon Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation. Lions officials say Bowser goes "above and beyond" in his work, but Bowser maintains, "It�s not about me. It�s about the Lions." By Buffy Pollock Lions Club member Chet Bowser looks fondly through an old red notebook at the names of about 270 people he helped enable to see and hear better over the past nine years. Bowser said he started writing names down after helping his first patient, a 12-year-old boy who needed glasses his parents couldn't afford. "I may not be able to remember what some of them looked like, but I can still remember what it felt like to be able to help them," recalls the 76-year-old. As Central Point patient care chairman for the Southern Oregon Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation since 1992, the retired teacher spends much of his time visiting and interviewing potential recipients and evaluating applications for assistance. The foundation, based in Medford, offers financial assistance for individuals that need exams, hearing aids or glasses and cannot afford them. Patients that need surgery or other treatments are evaluated locally and referred to the state foundation in Portland for assistance. "Without people like Chet, the program wouldn't work," said Executive Director Sherrie Messer. She described Bowser as "organized, very caring and always willing to help." "He's such a great person. He makes everyone feel comfortable and he knows everyone he's helped. He really cares. That's just who he is and that's what the Lion's are about," Messer said. Bowser, a Pennsylvania native, moved to Oregon in 1951 and the Rogue Valley in 1968. He taught biology and math at Crater High School the last 17 years of his teaching career and was named Oregon Teacher of the Year in 1978. After retirement in 1985, Bowser worked at the school board district office until 1999. Bowser said he joined the Lions because he believed in what they were doing. "They're a wonderful group of people. Everything they do, all their projects, are geared around helping people," he said. Bowser said his involvement with the Lions enabled him to continue doing something he'd been drawn to do his entire life: helping children. "I get calls at my home saying, 'We have a child who needs some help,' and after all my years of teaching, I can only think that if they can't see it or hear it, how are they ever going to learn how to read it or write it?" Although Central Point is "his turf," Bowser said he goes wherever the foundation needs him to. His notebook is full of names of people from Rogue River, Medford and all over the valley. He said while his priorities were both low-income elderly and children, "the teacher part" of him reached out especially to the children. "I love kids. They make the world go round," he said. "My favorite was a little girl with �turned-in' eyes. I taught her father in school and it was really nice for them to not worry when she went to school. No one could make fun of her (after corrective surgery) and by golly, they would have, too," he remembered. Scott Maguire, chief executive officer of the Oregon Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation in Portland, said Bowser has given "above and beyond" in his position. "It's his givingness that's so important. We have 200 Lions clubs, and lots of folks that do this, but his level of giving is so huge. To have just one person be in 267 people's lives, that's phenomenal," said Maguire. But Bowser humbly explained, "It's not about me. It's about the Lions," he said. Maguire joked that Bowser was just "the usual humble Lion." "They don't want the spotlight anywhere near them. All Lions are humble, just like this guy. He's a quiet hero in his own way," he said. But Bowser still insisted, "It's about the Lions. And it's about the children." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.