Bruce Bowling, Founding Team Member of Firehouse, Dies

Oct. 23, 2014
Bruce Bowling, a member of the team that founded Firehouse magazine and a luminary in fire service business, died Tuesday.

Bruce Bowling, a member of the team that founded Firehouse magazine and a luminary in the fire service business, died Tuesday. He was 77.

Firehouse founder Dennis Smith once called Bowling “a bastion on the business side of the fire service, known to every man and woman in the country who has a product to sell to firefighters or fire departments.”

He retired as Firehouse’s group publisher and director of advertising in April 2005, having joined the business in 1975 as the director of advertising, a full year before the first edition of the magazine was published.

On reflecting on Firehouse’s first 25 years in business, Smith said Mr. Bowling was a very capable ad sales person, always able to pull out an extra ad or two to make the rent in the early days.

Upon retiring in 2005, Bowling himself recalled those seminal days of Firehouse.

“We originally planned Firehouse to be a bimonthly publication, budgeting for 11 pages of advertising in the charter issue and nine pages in the second issue," he recalled in an interview. "In fact, we sold 54 pages of ads for the charter issue and 49 for the second issue. At the time, the ads pitched everything from fire trucks to smoke detectors, and from motorcycles to liquor and cigarettes.”

Associate Publisher Jeff Barrington worked with Bowling for 10 years prior to his retirement.

“He was my boss, but more than that, we were business partners and good friends,” Barrington said upon learning of Bowling's passing. “Bruce recognized the importance of objective coverage of the fire service and always supported the editorial team, never failing to publicly praise us when we earned it and privately chastise us when we deserved it.”

Barrington continued to say; “Bruce was full of ideas – he’d often walk into my office, sit down and ask me, ‘What do you think if we...?’”

Although he was not a firefighter, he educated himself about the fire service and he knew how to foster connections between fire departments and the companies that provide everything that firefighters need, Barrington said.

“Perhaps most important, Bruce was always a gentleman,” Barrington said. “He will be missed. On behalf of the entire Firehouse editorial team, we offer our condolences to his wife, Phyllis, and his son, David.”

Bill Bruns, a fire service icon in his own right, said he had known Bowling for more than 30 years and considered him a personal friend more than a business associate. Bruns retired as United Plastic Fabricating’s vice president of sales and marketing last year, having held that position for 17 years. Previously, Bruns had worked for apparatus manufacturers including Gruman, a company he joined in 1966.

Bruns said he first met Bowling back in the 1980s and always enjoyed working with him.

“He was one of the most honest and enthusiastic people I have ever known,” Bruns said. “He was a friend.”

Bruns said Mr. Bowling always impressed him as a man of his word.

“His follow up was always fantastic,” Bruns said. “If he said he was going to do something, you never had to wonder if it was going to be done.”

Bruns was also a long-time member of the Congressional Fire Services Institute (CFSI), and Bowling was a big CSFI booster right from the start.

Upon learning of Mr. Bowling’s passing, Bill Webb, said that CFSI is indebted to him for his support of the organization.

“He was there when CFSI was first established in 1989 and remained committed to our mission during his time with Firehouse,” Webb said, noting that Bowling was an active member of the CFSI National Advisory Committee.

“I always appreciated his thoughts, wisdom and counsel regarding how CFSI can strengthen its relationship with the fire service industry,” Webb said. “In addition to being the best dressed fire service leader, he had so many other talents and a great sense of humor.”

Arrangements for Bowling are pending with Schwartz Brothers Jeffer Memorial Chapel, Forest Hills, NY. Services are expected to begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 26.

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