MTFCA Forum

Hi friends,

It saddens me to let you know Tony Bowker lost his fight today with a very aggressive Cancer. He was a dear friend, my role model in this hobby, a great mentor. I loved him like he was family. I had planned to see him this weekend but sadly it will never come. He loved these cars like no other, he loved his many friends and members he met along the way. Just wanted you all to know.

God Bless Tony.

Tony was a great friend to all who knew him. Quite often on tours he would be all greasy because when someone broke down he was one of the first to help and many times crawled under their car to work. He planned many interesting tours including at least 3 "Desert Rat Tours" where we would tour to a location and then drive to the next location and several locations for a week through the deserts of Southern California. He was planning one this month but it was postponed till fall because of his illness. I am glad that Tony finally received the Rosenthal Trophy. He really deserved it.
Norm

Norman, winning that trophy filled him with so much joy and pride.

I am saddened to hear of my friends passing. Tony was one of the good guys. He has & will be missed.

I just learned that Tony wasn’t well Friday and was shocked to hear of his passing. What a loss to all of us. During our 2018 National tour in Richmond, he delivered parts for the machine shop he hauled all the way from the west coast at no cost to us. He also spent time in the Vintage Garage helping a fellow driver change a couple of tires so they could tour the next day. He will be missed.

Wow! The last time I saw Tony was several years ago on the Redwood Empire National when I passed off some tooling for the museum that Jerry spoke of above. Tony was that kind of guy- aligning folks in ways that made this hobby what it is. My best to his family and friends.

I really enjoyed Tony’s resurrection of his 1909 project, it was quite an interesting journey. Godspeed Tony.


Tony’s 1909 project.
https://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/7 ... 1503972552

Tony will be missed, I always enjoyed his postings.

A huge loss for the Model T community. Tony was a wonderful man who would always go out of his way to help others. He was generous and supportive with his Model T knowledge and skill. He was a true gentleman. Rest in peace my friend. My condolences to his family.

Tony was one of the good guys. Saw him often on MTFCA National Tours. He will be missed.

Keith

So sad to hear. Tony was truly one of the great ones. He has served this hobby for a long time. If my memory serves right I believe his MTFCA membership number was 32. I will miss you on tours, Tony.

Met Tony, Heather & family many years ago. Have missed Heathers cookies for some time now. They where a bulwark to the T comunity
they could put on a fantastic tour & speedster run. Tony you have been a insperation to all you have touched. Gods speed & give Heather
a hug for us OK.

Just now saw this. I refreshed the browser, I saw the title, and I knew.
I never really knew Tony personally. However I met him a few times at distant swap meets, and he and I traded numerous messages through this forum more than a few times. Some people you only need to barely know to know for certain what a great person they are! Tony was one of those.

Tony was one of the first people I met when I got my touring car in the 1970's. We instantly became good friends, and have been for all these years. We've been on dozens of tours together, National, Regional and Local, for thousands of miles. Tony could never pass anybody that broke down on a tour or event. He always would stop and help anybody that needed assistance. He owned and drove many different Model T's and enjoyed them all. He was always active in both local and national club events. Any job that needed to be done, he would do it without fail. His lovely wife, Heather died a few years ago from cancer and he passed from the same disease. He was very positive and hopeful that he would survive but it didn't happen. He is survive by his daughter, Carolyn, her husband Scott and two wonderful grandsons. The Model T world lost a great friend and a wonderful person. I hope he's driving a Model T in heaven.
Craig French

RIP Tony, He was a great friend and will be sorely missed by many. We so enjoyed his speedster run tours and also Heathers cookies. Special condolences to all the family.

Tony was "The Package" and everyone benefited from it. Join Heather and RIP.

Ed aka #4

I didn’t really know Tony but met him several times at swap meets and at a long ago Model T tour. Tony did a lot for our hobby and will be missed. RIP Tony and enjoy talking Model T’s with Mr Ford upstairs.

I was honored to meet Tony several years ago at Chickasha. What a well spring of Model T knowledge and experience. I had greatly enjoyed his Forum posts before meeting him but didn’t know they were written with an English accent. I’ll miss his humor, encouragement of others and sage advice.

I am so sad to hear this. I knew that he had been struggling for a while.
Two years ago while on the National Tour in Spokane, I saw that he was on the list of tour participants and wanted to meet him. I found him and we had a nice conversation. I'm glad that I took the time to seek him out and meet him. Condolences to his family..
: ^ (

A few years ago - Tony sourced a
pick up truck & put together a
group of guys to load up Alexander’s
wood body at Ray Well’s place
after he finished restoring it.

I couldn’t get my truck & trailer
close enough.

Afterwards I bought him breakfast.

Later in the year I picked up a
Model T in Lake Elizabeth headed
to Colorado that Tony had come up
to check out for the lady that owned
it - it had been fathers’ and she
was sending it to her daughter.

The Model T Family lost another
great one - I visited with Tony
at The 2018 Homecoming in Richmond.

Eloquent - intelligent - articulate
kind - generous - patient …

FJ

Tony was a GREAT Guy.
He will be missed.

I never met Tony in person, but it's pretty much impossible to be a member of the Model T community and not know who he was.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1611

RIP, Tony.

We had a very special connection to Tony because of Rose's and his English background.

I remember meeting up with him at a campground on tour and having a cup of tea by his camper.

Also he would kid us about it being in the 70s always at Christmas so whenever we would see it was cold we would send him an email.

RIP Tony

Chris & Rose

I only knew Tony thru meetings at swap meets. A few years ago I sold a car to a person in Australia. Tony was the person known to both of us. I delivered the car to Tony at Chickasha. He then delivered it to a shipper in California. Tony was someone who would go out of his way to help others in the hobby. Tony will be missed.

Yes Donnie, that was Chickasha 2016 when i answered an offer from Tony to transport goods and chattels from west to the swap meet. I contacted Tony via forum and requested a return cartage for yours then my new project, our 1908 Reliable Dayton motor buggy. Tony accepted the request with no problem and transported the veteran at a very minimum cost. Like Donnie, Tony is a person that I will never forget...RIP Tony.... Condolences from the "T" families of Australia......n

Today is Tony’s Birthday.
Oh The Irony.

FJ

I got to know Tony a lot in the past few years since joining the hobby, and his help was invaluable. It's possible I may not have stuck with it if he wasn't close by and so willing to lend a hand when I felt way out of my league. I was always drawn to cars from this era but was first physically introduced to Ts sometime around 2015, when I was staying with a family friend who owned one. Mostly I used it to putter around a small town that had a max speed limit of around 25 mph. I was hooked immediately.

It wasn't until 2019 that I was able to buy my own; I really didn't know what I was doing, so I bought one that looked pretty on the outside but needed a lot of help on the inside. Around the time I managed to get it running, I needed help diagnosing some issue that I felt was causing it to drive poorly; I don't remember exactly what I thought it was. Tony was quick to offer his help and was soon over taking a look. After tweaking and checking a few small things, he suggested taking it for a drive so he could get a better sense of how it was running. So off we go with him driving. As soon as we left the speed bump-laden parking lot I lived in, he turned down a hill and immediately gave it full power; the ends of the spark and throttle levers were practically touching each other. We went screaming down the hill at max speed with me gripping the side of the front seat in wide-eyed terror. I had never seen anyone wring out an old car like that. Tony was completely unphased, looking as if he was watching a PBS documentary about counting sand. "Seems about fine to me," he yelled over the wind, "must have been user error." Tony invited me to an upcoming tour and then left shortly after. When I got back inside, my wife, Joy, asked, "why do you look so pale?"

One of the rear wheels on that same car started making clacking sounds not too long later. Tony offered to see if he could shim them or tighten them up, so Joy and I drove up to his house in Ramona and met him in his barn workshop. He talked to us for about an hour and gave us a tour of his workshop. He mentioned that he was very busy because he was looking to move soon. "Give me a couple weeks and I'll see what I can do about the wheel," he said. Joy and I made the 40 minute drive home. I looked at my phone once the car was parked to see that I had a voicemail from Tony: "I have the whole wheel apart and it's already been shimmed before but I can probably make it work. You can pick it up tomorrow!" Shortest few weeks I've ever seen. When we returned to his workshop, he handed me the wheel and said "it works fine but it looks ugly and I'm not very happy with that, so no charge. You can buy me lunch sometime if you'd like instead." Lunch was had later.

A few months ago we bought the speedster he built with Carolyn many years ago; he was happy it went to somebody that he knew. We didn't quite have space for it yet, so agreed to hold onto it until I sold my other T. When we came to pick it up, he was recovering from a recent hospital stay and having some difficulty but still helped us get it running after a long slumber. He encouraged us to drive it home (about twenty miles). About 1 mile down the road, it caught fire from a bad exhaust leak. Joy and I managed to put it out quickly with not too much damage. I called Tony to tell him and he said "hmmm, that's not the first time that's happened actually. You can borrow my trailer if you'd like." I don't think anyone forgets their first car fire. I certainly won't.

Joy and I would talk to Tony at every club meeting we attended and on a few occasions went to visit him just for his company and to see what he was working on. We may not have known him for as long as some other club members, but our lives are definitely better for just knowing him at all. He was a priceless mentor, and a good friend. We will miss him.

I first met Tony when I joined the Model T Club of San Diego back in the mid 80's. He was the first person to welcome me into the club. He, along with Lee Pierce, were my mentors and dear friends. Now both are gone. My memory of Tony will always be of times we shared working on T's, organizing tours, participating in the local club etc. My favorite time was him inviting me to join him on the 1996 London to Brighton Run in his 1901 Curved Dash Olds! It was the ride of a lifetime!!!

Did anyone notice David's MTFCA # is 31?

Tony's was 32.

Chris