NAPLES, FL – John Harrison Gowen, 94, died peacefully on October 6, 2024, surrounded by his loving daughters. He was born on April 2, 1930, in South Portland, Maine, the son of Ada Littlefield Gowen and Benjamin Harrison Gowen. He graduated from South Portland High School, class of 1948, and the University of Maine in 1952 where he majored in Engineering Physics. After graduation he joined the US Air Force where he was trained to fly F-86D fighter jets.

Following his honorable discharge from the military, he attended the University of Colorado at Boulder where he received his Master of Science in Business Management in 1959. He spent the majority of his career working on nuclear submarines at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.

He was an avid golfer and was Maine’s individual intercollegiate golf champion in 1951 and continues to hold the course record at Great Chebeague Golf Club on Chebeague Island, Maine, that he set that same year. His hobbies included snow skiing, flying his ultralight airplane and building furniture. He was an early adopter of solar home building and built his own passive solar home in York, Maine in the 1970s.

Survivors include his three daughters, Debra Gowen and husband, Allen Mass, Kathleen and husband, Guy Neal, and Julie and husband, Chris Fehrnstrom; and four grandchildren James, Caroline, and William Fehrnstrom and Benjamin Neal. He was predeceased by his sister, Anne (Gowen) Brown and brother William Gowen.

A private celebration of his life will be held at a later date. The family is eternally grateful for the loving care of the “angels on earth” at the Avow Hospice in Naples, FL. Memorial contributions may be made to Avow Foundation, 1095 Whippoorwill Lane, Naples, FL 34105.