Belize Business Tycoon Sir Barry Bowen Laid To Rest
Sir Barry Bowen Internment
Belmopan – (Belizean.com). Belize business tycoon Sir Barry Bowen who perished in an air accident on February 26th along with a prominent Albany New York couple Michael and Jill Casey and their two children, was interred this afternoon next to his parents Eric and Emilie Bowen at San Ignacio Town Cayo district in western Belize following a thanksgiving service at St. John’s Cathedral in Belize City.
The mass of thanksgiving was officiated by the Anglican Bishop of Belize Philip Wright assisted by Cannon Leroy Flowers. As a former Senator, Sir Barry was given a state funeral attended by current Prime Minister Dean Barrow, Leader of the Opposition John Briceno. members of parliament and the diplomatic corps, relatives, friends and employees and managers of his group of companies.
The funeral was escorted by the Belize Defense Force and concluded with a Gun Salute, Reveille and the laying of wreaths by Belize’s Governor General Sir Colville Young and government officials.
Sir Barry Bowen was born in Belize on September 19th 1945. His ancestors arrived in British Honduras as it was then known, from Britain and France in the 1700s. He grew up in Belize and was sent to boarding school in the U.K. but because of the weather changed to college in the U.S.A. where he graduated from Cornell University at age 20.
As Belize’s best known business magnate Sir Barry bought out his family’s interests in what was a then a small family company and launched the the Bowen Group of companies in the the late 1970s – just before the independence of Belize in 1981.
The group eventually encompassed the Coca Cola franchise, the Ford Motor Company dealership, the Belikin brewery – which produces Belize’s most popular beer Belikin and also Guinness Stout – Crystal Purified Water, the largest shrimp farm in the country Belize Aquaculture Ltd., the well-known Chan Chich Resort, the 140,000 acre Gallon Jug Estate and Coffee Company and two private elite schools.
Sir Barry was a veteran licensed pilot with some 40 years experience, The aircraft that he was piloting at the time of his demise was a Cessna 206 modified with a Rolls Royce turboprop engine retrofitted by Soloy Aviation Solutions in Washington State, U.S.A.
He is survived by wife Dixie Bowen, four sons and two daughters.
