Schweitzer founder Jack Fowler passes away

SANDPOINT — Jack Fowler’s name is synonymous with Schweitzer Mountain Resort.

The story is legendery — Fowler, driving back from getting rained out at Big Mountain near Whitefish, Mont., during Easter weekend in1960 saw the bowl of Schweitzer, packed with snow, and wondered why there wasn’t a ski resort on the mountain.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Fowler passed away Monday at the age of 87, as a result of advanced lung, liver and pancreatic cancer

He is survived by his wife, Dorothy, and his children and grandchildren.

Fowler last skied Schweitzer a year ago and participated in the resort’s  anniversary celebration in 2007.

A dentist by trade, Fowler was a matter-of-fact, get-things-done kind of guy, said longtime friend Mel Bailey, who now owns the water company that Fowler started to meet the requirements of building a ski resort.

“He was very matter of fact, very few wasted words,” Bailey said. “When he saw something that needed to get done, he just got down to getting it done.”

Bailey pointed to Fowler’s return to Sandpoint following the fateful drive back to Spokane from Montana in early May.

Determined to see if the snow he’d glimpsed from his car was skiable, Fowler, his son Tom and a friend hiked up the drainage and were driven back by the amount of snow. Undaunted, the trio returned two weeks later this time, they were successful.

While conditions were not the best, Bailey said Fowler recalled later that that was when he knew his dream of a ski resort near his home could become a reality.

News of Fowler’s passing surprised and saddened his friends and those connected to Schweitzer.

Former Schweitzer manager Sam Wormington said Fowler’s death was a shock, adding he would be missed.

“He was very instrumental in the way Schweitzer was back then and the way it is today,” Wormington said.

Many of those involved with Schweitzer’s beginnings were believed strongly that a ski resort would benefit the community, Bailey said. From the Brown family, which owned much of the land on which the ski resort would be built, to Bill Ballard, who became chairman of the Bonner Economic Task Force, launched to raise funds to get the project off the ground, many people were involved.

In Fowler’s book, “Looking Back on Schweitzer,” Ballrd recalls how, instead of a half-dozen or so people showing up for a meeting to explore the idea for a ski resort, 50 or 60 people showed up.

Soon, the group was able to use in-kind projects as match for grants used to actually build the resort.

Born in the Palouse area of Washington, Fowler trained to be a dentist and served in the military in the capacity during World War II.

In addition to his love of skiing, Fowler loved to fly — something that would come in handy for those working to get Schweitzer off the ground when they needed to attend meetings throughout the Northwest.

Bailey, who got to know Fowler during construction of the Schweitzer Chapel back in the 1970s, said his longtime friend would be deeply missed by all who knew him.

From his missionary work to community service to projects like Schweitzer, Bailey said Fowler was a man of few words, but great action.

“There are people capable of making life better for all of us, and Jack did,” he said. “He showed people a better life.”