WA - Gordon Albert Bowker, an influential Seattle entrepreneur and faithful friend to many, died on August 21, 2025 at age 82. Bowker had for 12 years suffered from a rare blood disorder, myelodysplastic syndrome. He died at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, where he was long

treated for the disorder. Present at the end of his life were his wife, Celia Bowker, and his longtime friends, Robin and Zev Siegl. Burial was at Crown Hill Cemetery in Ballard.

His mother's Norwegian family had resided in Ballard, where Gordon spent his early childhood. He retained a lifelong affinity for Ballard and loved recounting its quirky days. He liked to point out apartment buildings built by his grandfather, Paul Ringseth, and the site of his grandfather's grocery store, still standing, on 15th Avenue NW.

Bowker was a notable creator of new companies, often acting with close friends. One was the coffee startup, Starbucks, which opened its first Pike Place Market store at Western and Virginia in 1971, now demolished. The three pals who started Starbucks include Zev Siegl and Jerry Baldwin. Siegl sold his shares in 1980. Baldwin and Bowker sold to Howard Schultz in 1987. They retained Peet's Coffee, in Berkeley, California, founded by the Dutch coffee master Alfred Peet, who had advised the Starbucks founders and sold them tea and roasted coffee in their first years. Starbucks purchased Peet's in 1984. Bowker explained the decision to sell Starbucks while retaining Peet's was a result of a desire to stay in the gourmet coffee business and to reflect founder Jerry Baldwin's "worship of the bean."

Bowker sold his Peet's shares in 1987 while Baldwin retained his interest and continued to develop Peet's, with Bowker serving on the board.

Bowker was known and admired for his instinctive reading of the zeitgeist and spotting undeveloped markets and how to tap them. He and Terry Heckler, art director of KING Broadcasting's Seattle Magazine where Bowker was a staff writer, created a design shop, Heckler Bowker, famous to this day for its offbeat, amusing ads for Rainier Beer and K2 Skis. He teamed up with Paul Shipman to create Redhook Ale Brewery in 1981, a pioneer in Northwest craft beers.

With fellow Seattle Magazine writers, David Brewster and Pat Douglas, Bowker helped launch

the Seattle Weekly in 1976. Another of his ventures was a Kitsap real estate development with his longtime friend, Wilber James of Rockport, Massachusetts.

Claiming that he had "hit the wall" in his burgeoning businesses, Bowker began selling his shares to concentrate on his family, travel, and his wide circle of friends, especially wanting to spend time with his two daughters, Rosie and Jenny.

He developed a passionate interest in Hawaii, particularly in it's traditional slack-key music, and took frequent trips to his beloved Rome. He traveled to China several times with his cousins to repatriate his grandfather Bowker's world class Asian coin collection.

He remained on boards of directors and was a lively spectator of the growth of many of the era's startups. His business successes are so well known that almost forgotten is his involvement in Childhaven, which he named and whose board he served on for many years.

Bowker graduated from O'Dea High School and attended the University of San Francisco, where he became editor of "San Francisco Foghorn," the student newspaper.

Among the survivors at Bowker's death are his wife, Celia Petrich Bowker, his daughters Rosie Bowker of New York and Jenny Bowker Collins of rural Oregon. Bowker's father, a submarine officer, died at sea in World War II. His mother, Hazel Ringseth, died in 1991 in Seattle. Many members of the Ringseth family continue to live in the Pacific Northwest.

Gordon's life depended for many years on the work done by Bloodworksnw.org. He supported the organization's vital work in our region, and his family suggests donations in Gordon's name.