Scott Carlton Rowen was born to Dr. Gerald and Mary Helen Rowen on September 4, 1950 in Portland, OR and grew up in Miles City, MT. He and his three younger siblings shared many happy hours there hiking, riding horses, playing golf and ping pong and just being kids.
Scott immersed himself in activities at Custer County High School, from which he graduated in 1968. He was on the varsity football, basketball, wrestling, and golf (his favorite) teams, played saxophone in the band and sang in the chorus. He also served on the student council, attended Boy’s State and was a member of the Letterman’s Club. Outside of school, he was a star Boy Scout and the master councilor of his DeMolay group.
After high school Scott received an appointment to West Point from Congressman James Battin of Montana’s second congressional district, and the West Point Class of 1972 welcomed Scott when he joined the 6th New Cadet Company on July 1, 1968. Assigned to the G-3 Gophers after Beast Barracks, he was well known for his dry wit, sense of humor and love of sports, and especially his love of rock and roll music.
Scott went out for corps squad football plebe year but quickly decided that even at West Point those guys were too big and mean. He instead leveraged his football prowess as player-coach of the company’s intramural team, which did very well. Scott also brought his love of golf to West Point and made his first hole-in-one on the Academy’s course.
Scott loved music and in high school learned to play the guitar well enough to enthrall his sister and her friends during tent sleepovers in the backyard with his renditions of “Gloria” and “The House of the Rising Sun.” This midnight serenading often ended at Scott’s father’s firm bequest to “call it quits son and get to bed.” He was the first in the class to purchase a stereo system and from that day on spent much free time listening to or singing along with his beloved record collection.
Once firstie privileges arrived, scouting obscure New York City music venues for undiscovered talent destined for fame became an avocation. This avocation continued during Scott’s later assignment in Europe, often seeking out and attending concerts by these same new up and coming rock and roll groups destined for fame.
On branch selection night, Scott went Field Artillery and joined the “Redlegs” with five of his companymates. After officer basic at Fort Sill, OK (he never really believed that Fort Sill really was “okay!”), he served in Nuremberg, Germany with the 3-17th Field Artillery Regiment until 1976. He then returned to the 1-19th Field Artillery Regiment at Fort Carson, CO, where he completed his Army career as a captain in 1978. Though not a gung-ho kind of military guy, Scott always pulled his own weight and often that of those around him. His natural enthusiasm and “get ‘er done” mentality made his natural leadership an integral part of his very character and persona.
Scott then headed north to the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he completed an MBA in 1980. More serendipitously, here he found the love of his life, Nurse Julie Schneider. This fortuitous connection resulted from a blind date set up by his childhood buddy from Miles City, Rich Mountain, who was a resident at the hospital where Julie and her roommate also worked. Soon, Scott and Julie were married, as were Rich and Julie’s roommate, and each couple witnessed the other’s vows.
Newly married and anxious to get on with life, Scott joined Hughes Aircraft in El Segundo, CA, where he spent the first two years in rotational management training assignments. The integrity instilled by a father cut from the same cloth and reinforced for four years at West Point served Scott well in the world of corporate finance. Over the next five years, the couple was blessed with three wonderful children: Matthew, Sean, and Lisa. Scott spent many hours coaching the kids’ teams, camping, hiking, and fishing with them and occasionally squeezing in a round of golf (usually with his old friends back in Montana). In 1995, Hughes Aircraft, which ultimately became Raytheon, moved the family to Northern Virginia. Scott revived the running he’d started a few years earlier in Europe and added what he referred to as “old man’s soccer” to his repertoire. Scott thrived in these endeavors and, in his opinion, got into better shape than the day he graduated.
In 2004, Scott first experienced symptoms of early onset Alzheimer’s, the same affliction that had taken his father, and he left Raytheon. By 2010, his deteriorating condition led the Rowen family back to Billings, MT, where they would be nearer family and friends. On May 31, 2021, after a decade of loving care from Julie and many others, Scott passed away. For our fine, witty friend and classmate, husband, father, sibling and co-worker, Memorial Day was a fitting day on which to end this long ordeal and to say goodbye. He left admirable footprints treading “where those of the Corps have trod” and, for that, we say “Well Done, Scott; Be Thou at Peace.”