John O. Bowers, Jr. was born on September 22, 1930 to John and Hazel Bowers of Gary, Indiana, a city that his maternal grandfather AF Knotts had helped found in 1906 on behalf of US Steel. John grew up in the south lakeshore community of Miller Beach, swimming in Lake Michigan, jumping off the dunes, and skating on the frozen lagoon in Marquette Park. Upon finishing high school, he took some time to find himself, working in the Gary Works steel mill before taking his savings on the road for a cross country road trip in a 1938 Chevy that spanned from the Florida Keys to Los Angeles. An ardent model builder and car enthusiast, he returned home and enrolled in Michigan State University, where he chose to major in Electrical Engineering because it was the hardest subject he could think of. It became his calling.

After earning a Masters from Purdue and serving two years in the US Army, he began a career that would see him patent numerous innovations in the field Pulse Code Modulation Telemetry, the basis for all modern digital communications. His circuit designs eventually went to the surface of the moon. He met his wife, Carolyn Jeffress, in Washington, DC and married in 1959. Work for the space program took them to Florida, where they had two children, Karen and Kenneth. After two years spent designing integrated circuits in early Silicon Valley, the family returned East and settled in North Carolina where John raised his children while designing and manufacturing specialized communications modules for military applications. In 1990, retired and an empty-nester, he and Carolyn relocated to his beloved Florida where he lived for the next 34 years. John was preceded in death by his devoted wife and is survived by his children Karen Bowers Lee and Kenneth Bowers, and grandchildren Eric Lee and Ethan Bowers.

In his later years, John became a member of the Volusia Co. Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America and attended many of their meetings and events. He passed away on February 10, 2024 at Advent Health Deland after a brief illness. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Alzheimer's Association.