Brian Bowles, Executive Director
Bonne M. Bowles, former MAOPS 
Executive Director, and my Mom, passed away on June 27 after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 82 years old.
As a MAOPS employee since 1982, the Executive Director from 1988 to 2008, then our lobbyist until 2011, Mom was beloved in the profession. This was something I was aware of but did not understand the true extent until I took over for her in 2008. In my seventeen years at MAOPS, not a meeting or event goes by where someone doesn’t ask, “How’s your Mom doing?” We talk a lot about the “osteopathic family” here in Missouri as MAOPS truly tries to nurture that environment. Nobody took that more seriously than Mom. She looked at MAOPS members as her family and loved you just as she did our own.
Around our house, MAOPS was always an integral part of our family. Many don’t realize this, but I have actually worked for MAOPS since I was a teenager. I started at the lowest rungs, mowing the lawn, sealing the driveway, cleaning the building, and even stuffing envelopes with membership mailings with my sister and Grandma while we watched movies on Friday nights. All the while, hearing mom’s elevator speech about how great DO’s are and anecdotes about physicians she knew. She would throw about physician names like we were supposed to know them when we’d never met them. Our favorite names were Yasso, Accardo, and Bazzano who I began referring to as the “Godfathers!” She spoke about each as if they were her own kin, which I realized they had come to be. When I finally met them, I knew why she loved them so much.
My sister and I used to give Mom trouble for using all the acronyms associated with the profession when she talked to us. We had no idea what she was talking about when she referred to the AOA, UHS, or KCOM. To try and prove our point, we would talk back to her using our own made-up acronyms like PTGB (“pass the green beans”), and we’d all have a good laugh. Now my kids make fun of me for the same thing!
Mom was all in on DO’s, and if you weren’t a member of MAOPS, she was not afraid to get in your face about it. Mom so closely tied being a good DO with MAOPS membership that when she started having health issues last year and found out her new primary care physician wasn’t a member; she switched to one that was! That’s walking the walk!
I interviewed Mom a couple months before her death and asked her what she was most proud of during her time at MAOPS. She said, “the friendships.” She looked at you all as part of her family. Even if she didn’t know you personally, the fact that you were a DO made you family!
Mom left an indelible mark on MAOPS, the osteopathic profession, me and my family. She can’t be replaced – in the osteopathic family or at home.
Bonnie’s visitation is scheduled for Wednesday, July 9 from 4:30 – 6 PM at Freeman Funeral Home in Jefferson City. Her funeral service will be held on July 10 at 10 AM at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Jefferson City. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made to the William L. Wetzel Foundation designated for Bonnie’s beloved Wetzel Scholar Program.