Society of Senates Past
Roster

C. BERNARD (BERNIE) FOWLER
Democrat, District 29.

Born in Baltimore, March 30, 1924.  Graduate of Calvert Senior High School.  Married; four children.

General Assembly:
Member of Senate, 1983-94.  Member, Budget and Taxation Committee; Economic and Environmental Affairs Committee; Executive Nominations Committee; Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics; Special Joint Committee on Pensions.  Senate Chair, Joint Committee on Chesapeake Bay Critical Areas; Joint Subcommittee on Program Open Space and Agricultural Land Preservation.

Private Career and Other Public Service:
Served in U.S. Navy, 1944-46; Awarded the Asiatic-Pacific, American Theatre, and Victory Medals.  Businessman.  Member, Calvert County Board of Education, 1963-69 (Past President); Calvert County Commissioner, 1970-82 (Past President).  Member, Governor's Commission on Special Education; Governor's Task Force on State-Local Fiscal Relationships; Governor's Task Force on Time-Sharing; State Development Council Task Force; Patuxent River Commission.  President, Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland.  Chair, Tri-County Natural Resources Commission.  Member, Chesapeake Bay Commission. Member, Prince Frederick Lodge 142; Eastern Star; American Legion; VFW; Elks; Kiwanis; Farm Bureau; Chamber of Commerce; Sportsman Club; Potomac River Association; Waterman's Association.

Personal Comments and Observations:
    The most controversial issue with which Senator Fowler dealt while in the Senate was the abortion issue.  He believes that his most significant achievement in the Senate was acting as a "guardian of natural resources."  Senator Fowler's most memorable event in the Senate took place in his sophomore year when he was chosen to recite George Washington's address delivered in the Old Senate Chamber in 1783 when he resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.  Senator Fowler believes that this was a great honor and a very rich experience in his career.  He states that it was a moment of "irrevocable history" to stand in the same place where so many powerful people had stood before and to read the words of our nation's first president.

Compiled March 16, 2000 from the biographical files of the Maryland Manual, Maryland State Archives, and from a telephone interview with Senator Fowler on February 1, 2000.