Age: 65 Childhood: Father died in World War II, when he was 3 months old. Mother raised him in Ballard and Burien. Family: Lives with his...
Age: 65
Childhood: Father died in World War II, when he was 3 months old. Mother raised him in Ballard and Burien.
Family: Lives with his wife, Celia Bowker, in Seattle. Their two grown daughters, Rosie and Jenny, also live in Seattle.
1960-65
Graduates from O’Dea High School in Seattle and attends University of San Francisco, where he rooms with Jerry Baldwin, with whom he later founds Starbucks.
1962
Drives cross-country with two friends, including Zev Siegl, another Starbucks co-founder. Bowker then tours Europe, where he took a shine to British beer and Italian espresso.
1965
Edits his university newspaper and quits school eight credits short of a degree. Returns to Seattle, where he drives taxis, house-sits and works as a Seattle Underground tour guide, among other things.
1968
Writes educational films for a division of King Broadcasting and freelances for the original Seattle magazine, where he meets Terry Heckler, with whom he later starts an advertising agency, and David Brewster, whom he later helps to launch Seattle Weekly.
1969
Begins to drive to Vancouver, B.C., to buy Murchie’s coffee. Eventually makes monthly trips and decides to start a coffee store in Seattle.
1970
The magazine publishes its final issue.
1971
Bowker, Baldwin and Siegl open the first Starbucks store near Pike Place Market. Bowker paints the store and works there on weekends.
1973
Heckler Bowker gets the Rainier Brewery advertising account. One ad features frogs croaking “Rainier.” Baldwin uses a closet at the agency as his Starbucks office.
1976
Sells his share of Heckler Bowker, begins to mull the idea of a brewery and encourages Brewster to start Seattle Weekly. Bowker contributes money to the Weekly’s launch and writes restaurant reviews under the pseudonym Lars Henry Ringseth.
Late 1970s
Co-founds Apanage, a real-estate development company in Poulsbo.
1980
Works with Chateau Ste. Michelle, where he gets to know Paul Shipman, with whom he starts Redhook Ale Brewery.
1982
Redhook pours its first beer.
1984
Starbucks, which was majority-owned by Bowker and Baldwin, buys Peet’s Coffee & Tea.
1987
Bowker and Baldwin sell the Starbucks portion of Peet’s to Howard Schultz and a group of investors. Bowker leaves the coffee business, but rejoins Peet’s board in 1994. He’s resigning from the board May 21.
2007
Involved in Hawaiian slack key guitar scene and joins Ken Levine in producing a CD of Led Kaapana and Mike Kaawa.