Local artist Fowler dies

SPOKANE - Mother, friend, artist, devoted Christian, skier, aviator - no matter how one knew her, Dorothy Fowler is remembered as a selfless and inspirational force in the lives of those around her.

Dorothy died Saturday in Spokane after a prolonged battle with multiple myaloma, a form of cancer.

Born Dorothy Morgan in Butte, Mont., on April 10, 1926, she endured considerable adversity in her childhood, including several years in a Butte orphanage, according to her daughter, Deborah Huestis.

Dorothy graduated from Pacific Grove High School, California, in 1944 and later married William Thompson. The couple started a family in Spokane before the marriage ended 17 years later.

Dorothy persevered through many early hardships by leaning on an inner resilience that came from her Christian faith which she shared with many during her life, Huestis said.

"She was a pillar of strength," Huestis recalled Monday during a phone interview.

Dorothy later met Dr. Jack Fowler, a Spokane dentist and visionary behind what is now Schweitzer Mountain Resort. The couple were married in 1966 - in a ceremony at Schweitzer. The union proved a dramatic turning point in Dorothy's life.

"She stepped into what would be a fairy tale marriage," Huestis said.

The strength of the couple's marriage was obvious to those around them, who recall them often walking hand-in-hand, even in their advancing years.

"The love between them was so strong," long-time friend and associate Martha Bell remembered. "You wish that all relationships could be like that."

Dorothy and Jack were inseparable, Huestis recalled. The couple blended the three children they each brought to their marriage, with Dorothy focusing her early married years raising their six children, helping Jack with dental practice and his vision for Schweitzer. The couple often flew to Mexico and Central America, where Jack performed missionary dental work.

At age 55, with all their children grown and following their individual paths, Jack urged his wife to pursue her own interests. Dorothy, who had majored in art at San Jose State University, turned back to her art, taking a variety of college art classes in Spokane. It was there that she became captivated by clay, Huestis said.

"Very early on she learned that sculpture was her forte,'" Huestis remembered.

Free to explore her art, Fowler went on to become an accomplished and renowned international sculptor and bronze artist. Her body of work includes a life-sized, 8-foot, 600-pound statue of Spokane astronaut Michael P. Anderson, who died in the ill-fated 2003 Columbia space shuttle disaster located at the Spokane Convention Center; huge bronze doors at Our Lady of Lourdes cathedral in Spokane, and at St. Ann's Cathedral in Great Falls, Mont.; and bronze doors on the Church of the Sermon on the Mount in Israel, according to a 2008 article in The Fig Tree, a faith-based non-profit in Spokane.

"She touched a lot of people with her art - her religion was very strong," Bell said. "But the ones she did for the churches I think were probably her favorites."

Dorothy's work is also on display locally at the Schweitzer Chapel, which she was instrumental in building, and is one of her most beloved accomplishments, Huestis said.

"She wanted it so people wouldn't have to go down the hill for church," Mel Bailey, another friend and associate said.

In between it all, Dorothy also took the time to learn how to fly, becoming an accomplished pilot who used her plane for her art.

"Dorothy, who is doing well in her art, will load some sculptures in the back of her plane and take off," Jack wrote in his 1991 book, "Looking Back on Schweitzer."

Her early lessons in overcoming adversity would come to play in her final years, when Dorothy struggled with a host of painful ailments, including arthritis. Still, she continued to sculpt and travel with her husband "through that pain for years and years," according to Huestis. But the death of her husband was the most difficult burden to bear.

"Her nemesis, her Achilles' heel was losing Jack," Huestis said. "But even through that she never lost her grace for others."

Dorothy Fowler was preceded in death by her husband, Jack; his eldest son, Tom; and her brother, Roger Murrayand. She is survived by her brother, Gerald (Alice) Morgan; son, Keith (Betty) Thompson of Spokane; daughter, Deborah (Guy) Huestis of Great Falls, Mont.; daughter, Trudy (Bruce) Burda of Spokane; stepson, Dan (Mary) Fowler of Doylestown, Pa.; stepdaughter, Penny (Rob) Shephard of Spokane; 12 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.

Donations honoring Dorothy can be made to Hospice House South of Spokane.

"All her artwork uses models, and she used her children and family a lot," Bell said of Fowler's favorite subjects. "They will last forever in bronze."

A memorial service is scheduled for Monday, 1:30 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 318 S. Cedar St., Spokane, with reception to follow.