Horace Schow II – Lieuenant Colonel, United States Army

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Horace Schow II was born in Brownwood Texas on November 14, 1932 to Horace Schow and Mary Adelaide Walker Sears Schow. He had no siblings. At age 5, he and his parents moved to Vincennes, Indiana where he was raised and he graduated from Vincennes High School in 1950. He spent one year at Indiana University (1950-1951). In 1951 he was admitted to United States Military Academy at West Point from where he graduated in 1955 with a class ranking of 29 out of 467 graduating cadets.

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Upon graduation, he chose to join the Corps of Engineers. After engineer basic, airborne and Ranger training, his first assignment was a 16 month tour in Korea (1956-1957) with the 3rd Engineer Battalion which was with the 24th Infantry Division. He taught ROTC at Clemson University (1957-1959). From 1959-1961 he attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology obtaining a Master’s Degree in Nuclear Engineering and another Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering.

In 1961 he was assigned to the 97th Engineering Battalion in the Bar-le-Duc, France region as commander of Company D. After 18 months he was transferred to the 97th Engineering Battalion headquarters in Verdun, France.

In 1964, he left France and was transferred to Washington D.C. where he joined the US Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (“AFRI”) where he was actively involved in nuclear reactor research.

In 1966, leaving behind his wife and three young children, he joined the 84th Engineer Battalion in Vietnam and returned to the United States in 1967 to another assignment in the Washington D.C. area.

In 1969, he was assigned to the United States Embassy in Bonn, West Germany (as it was then known as) as the research and development liaison with the West German government.  In 1973, he relocated to Tainan, Taiwan as the advisor to the Taiwanese Military Academy and one year later, to Taipei, Taiwan as part of MAAG (Military Assistance Advisory Group).

In 1975, he retired from the U.S. Army and started law School at Florida State University from where he graduated in 1978 with his Juris Doctorate degree.

He worked for the State of Florida for the next 24 years, most notably as the General Counsel for the State Board of Administration for the last 18 of those 24 years.  He semi-retired from the practice of law in 2002.

Horace Schow died on March 29, 2005 in Tallahassee, Florida after an arduous year-long battle with esophageal cancer. His remains were interred at Arlington National Cemetery with full honors on June 1, 2005.

Horace Schow II was survived by his wife, Hildegard Wagner Schow, whom he met at Clemson University and married in Tallahassee, Florida on June 7, 1958. Their first child, Mary Elizabeth Schow, was born on March 18, 1959 in Anderson, South Carolina. Their second child, Peter Horace Schow, was born on August 11, 1960 at the Chelsea Naval Station in Boston, Massachusetts. Their third child, Alice Patricia Schow Bowman, was born in Verdun, France on August 29, 1962. Four grandchildren also survived him: Marie Christina Schow (born December 16, 1989), Paul Arthur Schow (born October 25, 1992), Caroline Dorothy Bowman (born January 29, 1994) and Madeline Joy Bowman (born February 12, 1998).

He was a true Renaissance Man. He was a voracious reader, gardener, traveler and sportsman (tennis player, horseback rider, skier, bicyclist, jogger, and fisherman).  He possessed an extraordinarily keen intellect and an excellent sense of humor. As an adult, he learned how to play the piano and became fluent in German. He enjoyed his family and many co-workers over his two long-lasting careers. At the end of the day, though, nothing pleased him more than going home and tending to his house and yard.  We were lucky to have him and he is sorely missed by many.

SCHOW, HORACE II
LTC   US ARMY
VIETNAM

  • DATE OF BIRTH: 11/14/1932
  • DATE OF DEATH: 03/29/2005
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 64  SITE 3457
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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