Date of Birth:
Thursday, August 25, 1932
Date of Death:
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Age:
84 years old

Clayton B. Stowe

Clayton Basil Stowe, 84, passed away peacefully at Saint Marys Hospital, Rochester, MN on April 30, 2017.

Clayton was born on August 25, 1932, to Clarence and Bertha (Wolosek) in Madison, WI. The family later moved to Milwaukee, WI where his father started “Stowe Tool and Die”. Clayton graduated from Shorewood High School and Spencerian Business College, learned welding and was a tool and die apprentice. He became the technical manager of Stowe Tool and Die.

On July 20, 1957, he was blessed in marriage to his loving wife Doris Wesley of Milwaukee. After 23 years of managing the family business, in 1964 Clayton was recruited to be a plastics engineer at IBM and moved his family to Rochester, MN. He continued to work at IBM for an additional 27 years until his retirement. Clayton and Doris were blessed with two children, Susan and Gary. He also had the joy of participating in the lives of his two granddaughters, Jessica and Julia.

Clayt was an avid member of Bethel Lutheran Church where he was active in church functions including Bible studies. After retiring, he was also a very active volunteer for Mayo Clinic for 15 years, enjoying the Mayo fitness center and calling bingo at nursing homes, sometimes with his granddaughters. He enjoyed playing cards at the Senior Citizen’s center, where Clayt and Doris were Rochester’s King and Queen Seniors in 1994.

His greatest joy in life besides family was the outdoors. He was an avid outdoorsman trying anything if it related to hunting or especially fishing. He was well known as the “Salmon King”, spending many summers and taking groups on charter excursions to Lake Michigan. He enjoyed teaching family, friends, children with the “Handicap Kids for a Day” program, and his charter boat tour guests to have as much fun fishing as himself. It was his life. Clayt loved watching sports and telling endless jokes.

Besides his parents, Clarence and Bertha, he was preceded in death by his brother Marvin, all of Milwaukee.

He will be remembered with great love by his loving wife, Doris; daughter, Sue Stowe, of Salt Lake City, UT; son, Gary (Brenda) Stowe; and granddaughters, Jessica and Julia Stowe, of Rochester.

The funeral service will be held at 11:00AM on Saturday, May 6, 2017 at Bethel Lutheran Church, Rochester, MN with Pastor Norman Wahl officiating. Visitation will be held from 5:30PM to 7:30PM on Friday, May 5, at Bethel Lutheran Church and one hour prior to the service at the church on Saturday. He will be laid to rest at Wisconsin Memorial Cemetery, Brookfield, WI.

In lieu of flowers and plants, memorials are suggested to Bethel Lutheran Church or Paws and Claws Humane Society.