Ray W. Bowers
Basic Information 
- Status: Found, last updated April 19, 2007
- Reunion: Registered to attend with a guest
- Location: Alexandria, VA
- Prior School: Groveton
- Birthday: April 20
- Senior Photo: See full size
- Email: Yes (see form below)
- Website: http://www.RayBowers.com
- Website: http://www.RayBowersPhotography.com
Bio 
April 19, 2007
Wedding is coming up soon...
Here it is, a year since I got engaged and now the wedding is almost here: May 19, 2007 -- barely a month away! Like much of my life, I am running a little late on getting some things done, but the good news is that the engagement photos are in and posted at both my personal site, Ray's Home, and on our new wedding website, http://www.NonaandRay.com.
So, let's see if I can sum up the past year briefly:
- The engagement ring, ordered in March 2006 at Reed's Jewelers in Springfield Mall was a disaster. The store manager was finally convicted, I got my diamond, money and replacement sapphires back in September and in October Nona finally got a beautiful ring (from a different place!) to replace the high school class and costume jewelry rings she had alternated wearing for a while.
- Nona found a job down here in VA and moved in over the summer!
- The reunion was great! We had an amazing turn out for our reunion at the Ritz Carlton in October 2006! It was wonderfult, but boy am I glad that is over!!!!
- Between Nona's healthy cooking and our going to a gym, I have lost over 30 lbs since she moved in. No, we didn't do it just to look good for the reunion or wedding. I just wanted to be in better shape. I never imaged how much I would change just eating right and exercising!
- After almost 10 years with Deloitte Consulting, I finally left! I found a position with Raytheon working on a project at the US Patent and Trademark Office, just 3.5 miles from home! It is hard to believe I have only had 2 jobs in 17 years... I do not take job changes lightly, but this is one I could not pass up! The only big downside is that they did not give me a laptop, so now I have to use my big old desktop at home. Time for me to finally invest in a laptop of my own so Nona and I can sit side by side again on the couch with our laptops in the evenings like we did before...
- and of course, after the reunion was over, the next big thing was wedding planning!
A lot more has happened, but that is a quick summary! Maybe after May when we do not have reuion/wedding planning, job changes or moves planned, then perhaps we can catch up on other things and I can finally give this site a slight overhaul.
April 26, 2006
Latest News... Engaged!
For those who were not there, this evening at Dean and Dawn's Cherry Hill dance in Maryland,
I wanted to share some good news. I asked Nona Green to marry me and she said Yes.
To do it, Dean played "Ain't no sunshine" and I asked Nona to dance. I took her to the same spot where a few years ago at a Wednesday night Dean and Dawn dance I first remember meeting her and dancing together.
Half way through the song, with everyone else still dancing around us, I spun Nona to a sitting position on my knee while I kneeled on the other. At first she thought I was just playing with a new dance move, but she quickly realized there was more to it than that. I told her this was where we met and first danced so it seemed only fitting it is where I should ask her to marry me. It was a complete surprise for her and one I was happy to share with our friends there.
Nona could, and probably will, tell a bit lengthier version, but I thought I would beat her to the punch and get the highlights out. Thanks to Dean for playing the song, Dawn for grabbing my camera and getting this photo and of course bringing her onto the team (and into my clutches *sinister chuckle*) Ok, now she can now take over and have fun telling the ring story...
Anyway, I just wanted to get a quick message out. I realize there's many people I have fallen out of contact with over time. Hopefully I won't be out chasing women anymore, so maybe I will have more time to write and update my website!
PS, no date set yet...
March 9, 2006
Who is leading the reunion?
So just who is leading the charge to set up our high school reunion? Most of you do not know me since although I graduated from West Potomac, I never set foot there our Senior year. I was a quiet computer geek at Groveton for the first three years, but when Groveton and Fort Hunt merged, I ended up going to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology. Since TJHSS&T was just getting set up, they were not accredited. So, I still graduated from West Potomac but I did not attend classes, prom or any other WP activities our senior year. When I show up for the reunion, I will not know half of you -- the Fort Hunt half that is...
Now the real big question is why am I putting all of my spare time into this reunion? I have to admit, I have no clue! I started this Oct 30, 2005 when I realized that nobody else had started doing any planning. I missed the 5 and 10 year reunions, and well as I get older I kind of feel like I have missed out on not staying connected with high school friends. I only had contact information for one other alumni when I started this. Given that, I figured I was not the right person to lead this, but thought I could set up a class website, send out some e-mails, etc. I assumed that if I got the ball rolling and then found some of the class officers or other popular alumni, then they would take over and run this thing. Boy was I wrong...
Here it is 4 months later and this is a part-time going on full-time job! I have looked at everyone's photo, name, old contact information, e-mail addresses, google search results and past reunion forms multiple times. I built an alunmi tracking database, typed all of your information into it, mapped your address to a lat/lon pair for our map, scanned and edited your photos from our year book to put on the web site. Oh yeah, and I developed the whole website, answered hundred of emails, sent thousands more, called old phone numbers and continue to track people down and pestered them till they finally gave in and register on-line.
Why? I still have no clue... All I can say is that you all better show up and have fun! *chuckle*
About Ray
What can I tell you about myself? After graduation, I went to Radford University, got a degree in Computer Science and Statistics then moved back here. I had a condo over by the Huntington Metro station for about 14 years, then January 2005 I bought a house on the other end of Quander Road from the school. For my other full time job (besides this site and reunion planning) I am a manager with Deloitte Consulting. I specialize in Data Warehousing, a topic which deals with really big databases and fancy reporting systems capable of putting the average listener to sleep in seconds. I have been with Deloitte for almost 9 years. I spent a good 6 of those on the road, flying all over the country each week. It got to be old pretty quick, but boy do I have some stories! Ask me about the NY blackout sometime if you want to hear about the bench down in Battery Park that I ended up sleeping on...
I have several obsessive / major hobbies. Right after college I got into juggling, went to juggling events all over the US and England, and worked at the Maryland Renaissance Festival for several years. I got to the point where I could juggle 7 balls although I was most known for one ball juggling. That was fun for a while, but then I got into dancing. After all, there are far more girls in dancing, I can get my hands on them, and they do not throw things at me like they do in juggling. Dancing was a big turning point for an introvert like me. I met a lot of people, finally started to develop some minimal social skills and met lots of women! *sinister chuckle*
While dancing, I got into C/W and swing dancing. I have done competitions all over the US and now compete on a swing dance team. I primarily focus on West Coast Swing (WCS). Unlike Lindy and Jitterbug, WCS is a not an aerobic dance with tons of lifts/throws done to Big Band Music. WCS is a bit more mature and smoother dance done to a wide variety of music. Take a look at these short clips from to see what it is like. I am on the team one, the others are of various pros:
- Easterns 2006, Teams division, Capital Swing, 1st place, 13MB
- NADC 2004, Teams division, Capital Swing, 16MB
- NADC 2004, Showcase division, 1st, 15MB
- NADC 2004, Classic division, 1st, 11MB
- US Open 2005, Strictly West Coast division, 752kb
- US Open 2005, Classic division, 650kb
My other big obsession for a while has been photography. I have covered dance competitions all over the US, the UCWDC World Dance Championships in Nashville, TN, and one year was even the official photographer for the Cherry Blossom Festival where I traveled around with the Cherry Blossom Queen and Princesses for a whole week as their personal photographer (Oh, I loved my job!). These days, I try to do weddings once in a while, and have set up my basement as a studio to work more on portraiture. However, given the reunion activities, this particular hobby has fallen behind a bit...
Let's see, what am I missing? Oh yes... Girlfriend! I am still single, but after settling down from traveling full time for my job, I am happy to say that I have been dating someone for a while. Her name is Nona. I have posted some photos of her on my site. My favorite are the ones from the cruise we went on back in February. Yes, I won the cruise at a dance competition last year, so that made it even more fun!
Nona and I met through dancing, specifically the dance team we compete on. Somehow she has been able to put up with my quirks, jokes and tardiness. Lately, she has been helping me spend my money on a variety of home improvement projects: new windows, new doors, whole new bathroom, curtains, living room furniture, etc. We will see if she is more than just a girlfriend by the time we have our reunion...
Ok, that is probably more than enough for now... Now go write your own profile, catch up with old friends and make sure you register to come out to the reunion this October!!!
Take care,
Ray Bowers, West Potomac High, Class of '86
ray@bowers.com
http://www.RayBowers.com
http://www.RayBowersPhotography.com
http://www.WestPotomacClassof86.com
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