Chris Bowman always had a telephone within reach, even when his radio show wasn’t on the air. He spent thousands of minutes each month excavating tidbits of news or tapping his former political associates for stories to discuss on Rockford AM station WNTA.
“If he was in the bathroom, then a phone was in the bathroom,” said his partner, Bill Rose. “He was either on the telephone or on the computer almost anytime he was home.”
Mr. Bowman, 51, died of liver failure Tuesday, Feb. 3, in St. Anthony Hospital, Rockford.
After graduating from Guilford High School in 1970, he went to Drake University in Des Moines, earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, Rose said. He was a television reporter for a few years and then worked on the congressional campaign of former Rep. Lynn Martin (R-Ill.), his high school English teacher.
As campaign manager and chief of staff, he and his quick wit generated levity that is rare in the political arena, she said.
“Those first few years in politics and the campaign were incredibly fun,” she said. “We just laughed and laughed and laughed.”
Mr. Bowman was named deputy executive director of the National Republican Congressional Committee in 1985 and political director of the Republican National Committee about two years later.
“He was able to pick out good candidates and he was able to get resources to them to strengthen their campaigns,” said Chris Robling, a longtime Republican political operative. “It was a vast advantage for Cook County to have someone at that position in Washington.”
Joking that he had a “face for radio,” Mr. Bowman returned to Rockford in 1992 with a talk show on WROK and switched to WNTA two years later.
“Bowman had a network of contacts absolutely unsurpassed in this marketplace,” said David McAley, who hired Mr. Bowman for WNTA. “And second of all, he had a reputation for bulldog tenacity that no one else could match.”
Passionate about the news, he prided himself on sharing the plights of people such as small manufacturers and property owners, McAley said.
“What Chris felt most strongly about was fairness,” he said. “What Chris did best was to give voice to sides of the issue that the establishment would rather not want heard.”
He was competitive about everything from guessing Golden Globe winners to sporting events. He threw newspapers from the couch and screamed and yelled at the television, especially if the Cubs or Bears were losing, Rose said.
An early riser, Mr. Bowman read at least four newspapers “practically as soon as they hit the driveway,” Rose said.
“I swear he could hear them,” he said. “Then he’d already be on the phone calling people at 6:15 in the morning trying to get a story.”
He is survived by his former wife, Rebecca; a son, Corey; a daughter, Brittany; brothers William, James and Jerry; a sister, Kimberly; and a grandson.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Coronado Theater, 311 Elm St., Rockford.
