Elma Bowen, metallurgist, hiking trail enthusiast
March 27, 1920—Nov. 5, 2009
Elma Bowen, a career metallurgist and trail enthusiast who helped trailblaze the development of a trail from Allegany State Park to Lake Ontario, died Thursday in Sisters Hospital after a brief illness. She was 89.
Born in Buffalo, Miss Bowen graduated from St. Nicholas High School in Buffalo and studied chemistry and metallurgy at Niagara University.
She enjoyed a long career as a metallurgist for companies including Electrometallurgical Co., Union Carbide and Elkem Metals, which she retired from in the early 1970s.
A City of Tonawanda resident, Miss Bowen was a founding member of the Foothills Trail Club, which established and maintained the Conservation Trail—a 177-mile pathway trail that connects Allegany State Park to Lake Ontario, running from Pennsylvania to Niagara Falls, where it links up with a Canadian trail. The trail is accessible to all levels of interest and skill.
Miss Bowen served as president of Foothills for many years and was a board member of the Finger Lakes Trail Conference. She led many day hikes and more than 50 overnight or weeklong trips, many on the Appalachian Trail.
She received an Achievement Award from Foothills in 1989 and hiked well into her 80s, logging more than 5,000 miles on trails all over the United States.
Miss Bowen, who never owned a TV set, had a passion for reading.
She is survived by three sisters, Mary Kavanagh, Margaret Schack and Joan Bowen.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at 11:30 a. m. Monday in St. Paul’s Catholic Church, 33 Victoria Blvd., Kenmore.
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