While volunteering at the concession stand at a Baker University football game, Darrell Bowersox, former Baker director of dining services, was “pleasantly surprised” to discover he was going to be honored by the Lumberyard Arts Center, 718 High St., by having the kitchen named for him.
“He’s not the kind of guy who looks for accolades like this,” Tony Brown, vice president of the Lumberyard Arts Center, said. “When I said this was what we wanted to do, I think he was really surprised.”
Bowersox retired from his work in dining services last summer and the Lumberyard Arts Center is honoring his time serving Baker and the community.
“He was the first one everybody thought of; he was just perfect,” Sandy Cardens, co-founder of the Lumberyard Arts Center, said. “There was really no one else we considered.”
Brown proposed the idea of naming the kitchen after Bowersox to honor him in his retirement from Baker.
“He had been such an integral part of Baker and the community in general,” Brown said.
Brown thought the kitchen was the “natural choice” for Bowersox’s honor.
Brown met Bowersox at an employee banquet at Baker where Bowersox was in the kitchen and serving. Aside from working together at BU, the two have also worked together with the Lion’s Club and other events.
“He was just one of those people that (people might think he) had to have a clone, because every place you went, he was there,” Brown said.
Bowersox began working at BU in 1985 and retired in June 2011.
“It was 26 years of doing what I could,” Bowersox said.
Bowersox was not only involved on Baker’s campus, but was a member of the American Legion, the Lions Club and a member of the Maple Leaf committee.
He and his wife, Annie Bowersox, served as the Grand Marshalls of the Maple Leaf Festival in 2002.
Bowersox has also volunteered with the Cub Scouts and helped out at the Baldwin City elementary schools.
The Lumberyard Arts Center is accepting donations of $25, $50, $100 or more to create the kitchen. It will host a reception when the fundraising is finished.
For Bowersox, the whole experience is a humbling one.
“A lot of people have done a lot, just as much if not more than I have,” Bowersox said. “I really appreciate being recognized.”