Sam Fowler, who faithfully served as Athens ISD’s assistant superintendent for 20 years, is being inducted posthumously into the district’s Distinguished Alumni, as an outstanding longtime employee. Fowler served in that position at AISD from 1976 to 1996.
He was born July 6, 1935, in Grand Saline, Texas, to Foye and Faynelle Fowler. As a young man, Sam was heavily involved in both choir and band, which led him to Tyler Junior College, where he played saxophone during concert season and the bass drum during marching season. His performance on the drum was so outstanding that the director invited him on a band trip to Florida after Sam graduated from TJC.
“You’ve never seen anything like the way he would beat a drum, spinning and twirling the mallets,” said his wife, Pat, a former Apache Belle who met her future husband when they both went on a TJC-sponsored trip to Wisconsin.
The band was on one bus and the belles on another, but when they all stopped at a restaurant that had live music, Pat watched Sam dance. “I thought, ‘He’s the one for me,’” she recalled.
After TJC, they both enrolled at the University of North Texas and married in June of 1956, just before their senior year. Sam earned his degree in business administration, and went to work as an insurance salesman in Grand Saline.
“It was turkey one day and feathers the next,” said Pat. The insurance business wasn’t for him.
So it was a welcome development when the superintendent of Grand Saline ISD approached Sam in 1957 to see if he would be interested in teaching science and math at their high school, along with coaching tennis. “He’d never played tennis a day in his life, but the team did well,” recalled Pat with a laugh.
In addition to his work at the school, he also served as choir director at the Methodist Church in Grand Saline. It was music that led Sam to his next educational position. After leading the singing at a revival, he caught the attention of someone in Lindale who offered him the position of principal at an elementary-through-junior-high campus. Over his 14 years at Lindale, he rose to the position of assistant superintendent.
Then, in 1976, he was hired as assistant superintendent at Athens ISD, where he served continuously until his retirement in 1996.
“He was over the buses, the cafeteria, payroll; he was the business manager. They hired three people when he retired,” laughed Pat, who spent many years herself at AISD as an elementary teacher. “But it was a wonderful experience for him. He was a people person, always.”
With 20 years of service as assistant superintendent at Athens ISD, it’s natural to wonder if Sam ever had aspirations for the top chair, but Pat said it was never something he wanted. He enjoyed working behind the scenes and did the most good there.
“He came in as an outsider, and he won everyone over real quick,” recalled Athens ISD board member and former longtime district teacher Eugene Buford. “You didn’t hear anybody have a bad word to say about him. He was full of life and always in for a laugh.”
During his 39-year-career, Sam also earned a master's degree in education at East Texas State College, and continued to use his musical talents. During his early years, he sang regularly at weddings, revivals and funerals. He was a church choir director for 20 years, worked at a funeral home, and dedicated himself to several civic organizations, and two farms.
He and Patricia had three boys, Randy, Kevin and Todd. In June of 2020, Sam and Pat celebrated 65 years of marriage. He passed away on January 4, 2021, at the age of 85.
Also inducted into AISD’s Distinguished Alumni are Mark Wimberley, AHS class of 1973, and Donna Bullock, AHS class of 1974.