It was in the early 1940’s when my dad sharecropped in Bulloch County, Georgia (GA), and worked 80 miles away during the week at Seaboard Railroad in Savannah, GA, is when World War II (WWII) started its rage.
Being confronted by the government, my dad could choose to either help defend his country during war or head back to tenant farming in and around Bulloch County. With three siblings and his pregnant wife at home, he chose quickly to return to the farm.
But not for long were we tenant farmers with daddy also ginning cotton in nearby Aaron Station. Without a means of travel to and from work, he meandered through the woods within a couple miles to gin cotton in Aaron Station often returning hours after sun down late at night.
Bad news bombarded our family when baby sister died at birth and shortly thereafter, my third grade brother Max died resulting from poor appendicitis medicine judgment by the doctor.
We did survive especially when daddy came in from the field after plowing most of the day. The good news he heard and shared was the Bowen homestead on the Bulloch/Emanuel line was up for sale and by the grace of God, he was able to purchase the home place coupled with surrounding farmland.
Soon daddy and S. J. Scott were farming often plowing with our mule, “Doll” during the week. On Sundays, we attended Poplar Springs Baptist Church, where at age 88, I continue to worship.
Life moves forward for my parents and three additional sons were born about five years apart. Meanwhile, my older brother, J. M. Bowen Jr., graduated in 1954 from Portal High School (PHS) and worked with the railroad for several years following in daddy’s footprints before returning to the farm to purchase his own farms.
Meanwhile at home, I graduated from PHS in 1955 and left home in early Autumn to live with my dad’s aunt and uncle near Augusta, Ga. while attending Bolen’s Business College. Two part-time jobs, one after another, introduced me to the real world.
My first job was with J B White’s in Augusta wrapping Christmas gifts and next came typing for triple AAA and the job where I worked until I married and moved with my husband to Ohio, was King Finishing in Augusta. I loved them and they wanted me and my family to remain in Augusta but my husband, Ron Harley, Sr. wanted to return to his hometown in East Liverpool, Ohio, after having served four years in the military.
Luckily, Ron was able to find a promising job with Crucible Steel across the Ohio River into Pennsylvania where he worked and learned the electrician trade while dodging steel strikes on occasion. Our oldest son started to school in East Liverpool, but because of a lengthy steel strike, my husband found an electrician’s job bordering the Ohio River about a hundred miles south of either of our homes in the East Liverpool area.
Why on earth did we have two homes?
At church one Sunday on the outskirts of East Liverpool, a married couple was trying to find someone to purchase their farmhouse a few miles away. We couldn’t resist and so now we had two places to live. We soon rented our in-town house to the Sears Manager coming into town and we went to the farm…but only for a few months.
We then decided to visit mama and daddy on Bowen Hill located on the Bulloch/Emanuel County Line and the magic began!
First, we rented an apartment for a few months, sold both Ohio homes and bought a new home on the outskirts of Statesboro and lived there for ten years prior to purchasing out Bel-Air home in Statesboro that we owned for over 30 years; but we lived there much less.
Why?
My married name for more than 32 years was N Luree Harley and I was a Marketing Administrator for Brooks Instrument Div., Emerson Electric Co. near Statesboro, Ga. As president of a local National Secretaries Association in Statesboro, I spoke at a meeting one night where the female Personnel Manager from Georgia Southern College (GSC) heard me speak and phoned me the following morning to set up an interview.
In reporting to my management about the interview afterwards, Emerson management thought it would be an opportune time for Emerson to switch product training grounds. The solution included moving the training grounds from Brooks to GSC which gave those in attendance an opportunity to gain more credit for their college studies.
After the Emerson Electric President, our Brooks Instrument Division, Plant Manager and Emerson Electric Company VP, and I visited Georgia Southern College, it was discussed and determined that those attending the training at GSC instead of Brooks would receive recognized credit. And so it was for many years when I became an employee of GSC.
Developing programs in continuing education, scheduling events at the College such as Bob Hope and afterwards, John Davidson’s concert performing at the College on November 11, 1977 meant that my first review of the impending contract required priority review and then on to much higher management.
During my early time at the college, the department head called me into his office and told me that higher college management in Atlanta had stated that in order for me to remain in my position, I must be enrolled in pursuit of earning my college degree.
After several years of enjoying GSC while gaining tuition free and the first two years of college under my belt, I was let go from the college along with many others over time. The department head enjoyed switching employees frequently. So I returned to Brooks for a short time before we were forced to return to Ohio since my husband’s dad was undergoing a critical bed-ridden health condition.
Upon arrival in Ohio, my first thought was to focus on family and pursue my education.
Interestingly enough, when I visited Youngstown State University (YSU) to enroll, I soon learned of a position opening in Continuing Education at YSU. Three letters from top personnel including GSC’s President, Pope A. Duncan; N. W. Quick, Vice President and Brooks Instrument Division, Emerson Electric Company, President located in New Jersey, provided favorable letters of recommendation to YSU in favor of my background.
While attending YSU, I was an active student and writer for The Jambar, which is the University’s twice- weekly publication. I wrote an article for The Youngstown Daily Vindicator and several articles for the Youngstown Today which is Youngstown State University’s Alumni quarterly publication. My last writing assignment involved Socio-economic writing on Mahoning County, Ohio to be used by Center for Urban Studies to serve in Mahoning County, Ohio.
After graduation and in early 1986, my father-in-law passed away and I made a trip to the Atlanta area looking for work. As luck would have it, the first interview proved to be just what I was looking for.
My Bachelor of Arts degree, Business and Professional Communication, Youngstown State University, began to pay off as evidenced by one interview that resulted in more than a dozen years of top-notch employment.
At the time, Ebasco Services was headquartered at 2World Trade Center (2WTC) in New York, NY, however; there were several hundred employees located in Technology Park just north of Atlanta. That became my base even though I occasionally traveled to WTC or other locations as the need arose.
Usually, a dozen or so engineers would respond to a request for a proposal (RFP). After the typing crew finished the document, it was my job to make it into a proposal that satisfied the needs of our client. This could have been a week’s focus or a month’s focus in the making.
After Raytheon Engineers and Constructors (RE&C) purchased Ebasco at the end of 1993 and I was hired by RE&C to report to work in Hanford, Washington in February 1994 where excitement began and lasted almost all year.
After all, Hanford is where the bomb was built that was so prevalent in World War II. Even though I flew home to Georgia every three or four weeks, we still had our weekends frequently to view history and Mother Nature all around us in Washington State.
In late October, I returned to the Technology Park office and from there I supported the Vice President, Security as a Security Consultant frequently located back on the West Coast at major storage areas.
Ironically, one of my last trips to 2WTC, in New York was a workshop in early 2001 which included not only Raytheon’s managers but included New York Port Authority members.
Silence was welcome until 2004 when I received a call from my Raytheon Manager who was on loan from her Security Management position at Oak Ridge, TN to the Governor’s Office in Nashville, TN. We spent months together with challenges arising throughout the state.
I was called into two security consulting contracts in support of the Tennessee Governor’s Office of Homeland Security in Nashville with focus on the Statewide Critical Infrastructure Protection Plan; Vulnerability Assessments; Vulnerability Reduction Plans and Plan Validation (Tabletops/Computer Simulations/and Actual Field Exercises).
With almost three decades of strong administrative/marketing experience in services, manufacturing, and education, coupled with development of programs in Continuing Education at both GSC and YSU, experience proved to be the best teacher.
Gathering more than a half dozen years’ experience supporting the Vice President Security, Raytheon, in roles as an empoyee and/or a security consultant added to our value. Same with my more than a decade as Proposal Administrator with submittals to DOE, DoD, U.S. Corps of Engineers as well as other federal, state and local governmental entities, 1996 Olympics, etc.
Specific security included working with county and city law officials in setting up a temporary K-9 presence for locating substance abuse on a major power job site. Another was staging and presenting a specific Emergcncy Preparedness Managemenet Plan in September 1999 to top management in Honolulu a few weeks before Hurricane Dora marched through the jobsite on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific. Hundreds of both civilian and military personnel were successfully evacuated from the Johnston Atoll stockpile disposal facility-thanks to this effective joint plan.
As a Marketing Administrator for more than a dozen years, I traveled to offices in 2WorldTrade Center, NY; Denver, CO; Richland, WA; Augusta, GA; Philadelphia, PA; and Princeton, NJ to assist with government proposals and presentation developments.
Never a dull moment and now at age 88, I’m glad to have my cabin on land our parents left us here on Planet Earth. God bless the USA!
