Steve Fowler's Profile
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994 Shoresbrook Road, Spartanburg, SC 29301
864-706-6056 sfowler@sfowler.com
Lucky to have bought the house which sits
on what was the 10th tee of the old Shoresbrook Golf Club
It is nice to live where I lost so many golf
balls.
Born:
July 31, 1948
Lived in Arcadia for most of early life
Joined the US Air Force on delayed enlistment before graduating
and reported May 25, 1966
Married: Janice Lee Abernathy - September 19, 1966
One Child- Jennifer Lee (Hazen) - May 29, 1972
4 Grandchildren: Stephenie, Addie Elizabeth, Grace, Joseph
Worked for Cryovac Division of W.R. Grace From 1974 until September
1991
Owner of Fowler Associates
since 1991
In
Air Force: Lackland
AFB for basic training, Keeler AFB for Electronics school then
far east remote duty on radar sites mostly on Taiwanese islands
off Red China. This photo show me after I single handedly took
a Janpanese pill box. Of course the Japanese had left 22 years
before I stormed it.
After the Air Force, I went back to college
at USC Upstate for 2 years then finished in Electrical Engineering
at USC Columbia.
Since 1986, Steve Fowler has
been has been used as an "on camera" expert for many
national television news programs. The stories have been covered
by all major networks and many local stations:
One
might say that Electrostatics is in the blood of Steve Fowler.
Some of his ancestors were killed by a lightning strike in August
1895 in a mill village called Fairmont. The two killed were
Steve's Great Uncle and Aunt. This village, minus the old textile
mill, oddly enough is less than 3 miles from the Fowler Associates
offices.
Steve Fowler, President of Fowler Associates,
Inc, served in the U.S. Air Force from 1966-1970. He was lucky
enough to serve during the tumultuous Vietnam War era. Steve
spent 14 months on islands in the South China Sea on radar installations
and spent the rest of his service at Keesler Air Force Base,
Mississippi and Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina. After
the Air Force, Steve completed his Electrical Engineering Degree
at the University of South Carolina.
In 1974 he joined the Cryovac Division of W.R.
Grace & Company. His job was to help found a new engineering
department for electron beam irradiation of polymers. From 1974
until he left Cryovac in 1991, Steve progressed through leadership
roles in radiation engineering and radiation safety. In 1986
Steve was asked to help develop Cryovac's new electronics plastics
(ESD Products). From 1988 until 1991, Steve was the technical
and market manager for the EP Films Product line at Cryovac.
Steve left Cryovac in 1991 to take the Vice President of Sales
job at United Technical Products in Canton, Mass. Steve left
UTP in 1992 to take a VP role in a new company for a patented
product that he helped invent. This company was called Rapid-Fill
USA. It manufactured an inflatable dunnage package. This company
was eventually sold to Sealed Air Corporation. In 1993, Steve
helped found both ESD Flooring Systems, Inc. and Fowler Associates,
Inc.
ESD Flooring Systems manufactured and distributed
conductive carpeting for ESD safe areas. This company was sold
to Vinyl Plastics, Inc. (VPI) in 1996.
Fowler Associates was formed to perform the
electrical testing for ESD Flooring Systems and outside clients.
One of those clients was Cryovac who by this time had shut down
the EP Films project headed by Steve during his last years there.
Luckily, the massive ESD & electrical testing facilities
at the Research facilities in Duncan, South Carolina and in
Columbia, Maryland were being "mothballed".
Fowler
Associates acquired the entire inventory of electrical laboratory
equipment from both locations. This made the capabilities of
Fowler Associates second to none in electrical and ESD testing.
This equipment also allowed Fowler associates to begin again
the business of radiation testing and consulting. After the
sale of ESD Flooring Systems, Steve’s previous employers became
Fowler Associates first and remain their most consistent clients
for the present business of Fowler Associates:
On-Line Publishing
Publisher of the following on-line trade magazines:
ESD Journal (http://www.esdjournal.com)
RAD Journal (http://www.radjournal.com)
The Echo-2000, Steve Fowler
from 1984 - 1994: While employed at Cryovac, in 1984 Steve Fowler
started a company called Palmetto Technologies, Inc. It manufactured
a patented invention of Steve's called the ECHO 2000. This device
was the size of a calculator and allowed any deaf person to
communicate over the phone with anyone who was using a touch
tone telephone. The deaf person talked into the phone and read
the response on the display of the ECHO 200 which was being
typed out by the hearing person on the other end of the phone
line.
This device was featured in
USA Today, New York Times, many trade magazines as well as television
shows such as "The Merv Griffin Show."
It was not a marketing success
but brought help to many hundreds of hearing impaired people.
Some are still using the device today after 21 years. Steve
invented the device to be able to talk to his mother on the
phone after Steve's father died in 1976. With the help of two
partners, Trent Brown and David Himes, Palmetto Technologies
began manufacturing the devices in 1984. The ECHO 2000 used
a trademarked code, which utilized the 12 keys on the telephone
in a very efficient way. Some people could type 30 words per
minute using the touch tone pad. This code was called the "Echode"
and has been copied by Dow-Jones and other services, which allow
information to be entered by telephone.
