using the humanmodel of chronic renal dis- ease. In 1966 John received one of thirteen public health service grants to test the thera- peutic efficacy of a then-emerging technique —hemodialysis.His work contributed to the understanding of the life-saving technology. “If you were put on themachine you lived; if you didn’t, you died.There wasn’t any gray zone,” he said. When the grantmoney ran out, however,


John had to beg formoney all over the state and nation to keep his patients on dialysis. Eventually, he took his cause toWashington, d.c. “We actually performed a dialysis on the floor of theUnited States Senate,” he said. As a result, Congress approved dialysis and kid- ney transplant to treat end-stage renal disease under the umbrella ofMedicare. In 1973, John established Kidney Care Inc.,


a nonprofit that grew into twenty-eight dialy- sis units in three states withmore than 1,800 patients and 750 professional staffmembers.


In 1996, his nonprofit corporationmerged with several other dialysis facilities to form Renal CareGroup Inc. John served on the Board ofDirectors. In 1996, he established the Bower Foundation with themission of im- proving health care inMississippi. “We’re the fattest state in the nation,” John


said.To combat the growing obesity epi- demic, his group has “gotten all the deep-fat fryers out of the schools, and we are working to get the sugar out of soft drinks.”They’re also asking the legislature tomandate exercise at all public schools. While high blood pressure used to be the


biggest reason for kidney failure, diabetes is now the prime culprit. John retired in 2000 fromtheDepartment


ofMedicine at theUniversity ofMississippi Medical Center aftermore than thirty-five years of research, teaching, and providing pa- tient care. As chief of nephrology, he trained more than fifty doctors in the field.


Closer to home, John established the Bower


Center for the Arts in Bedford to honor his parents,Minnie, a registered nurse and an avid gardener, andMitchell, a local business- man, formermayor, and tenor in the Bedford Presbyterian Church Choir. John and his partner Edna Curry live in


Brandon,Mississippi.They enjoy their four- teen grandchildren and one great grandchild. John continues to care for a limited number of renal patients and works toward the pursuit of a national health programfor all Ameri- cans. “Health care, tome, is an inalienable right,” he said. And like health care, he said, caring for vet-


erans is both a national and personal responsi- bility.


To contribute to the Dr. John D. Bower Veterans Scholarship Fund, contact the Office of Advancement, Lynchburg College, 1501 Lakeside Drive, Lynchburg, VA 24501, 434/544-8665, or giving@lynchburg.edu.


DOUB L E


D u t y


STORI ES BY SHANNON BRENNAN


DAVID SMITH ’11 MIGHT HAVE LEFT THE MARINE CORPS, BUT THE MARINE CORPS HASN’T LEFT HIM. He stands ramrod straight with impeccableman- ners. “Yes,ma’am” is his response to every ques- tion. You get the feeling you should salute or say, “At ease, son.” It’s hard to imagine, however, that anyone can


be at ease after serving two tours of combat duty in Iraq. David’s journey back to some semblance of nor-


S e m p e r F i


malcy is a story repeated countless times by our na- tion’s veterans. He has come a long way,much further thanmany, as evidenced by the depth of his understanding about where he has been. “At the end of the day, I was just a guy with a


gun,” he said. “You can justify these things; you can’t glorify these things.” Once a college dropout, David is now a twenty-


eight-year-old economicsmajor with aspirations to be an attorney. He survived darkmoments with al- cohol and found light again, thanks largely to a wife who believed in him. His story has remarkable similarities to Dr. John


28 LC MAGAZINE Fall 2010


Bower’s. A Central Virginia native, David got through one semester at Hampden-Sydney College because it was expected of him. “I finished the semester, but it wasn’t an impressive semester,” he said. “I was going nowhere fast.” He enlisted in theMarine Corps in February


2001, but, as fate would have it, he wasn’t sent to boot camp until a week after September 11. Train- ing, he said, wasmore purposeful. “There was elec- tricity in the air.” Themilitary, David found, is not like any other in-


stitution in society. “There’s nomental conditioning you can do ahead of time,” he said. The beauty of themilitary, he said, is that it gives you everything you need—almost. As Camp Lejeune began emptying for staging


in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, David was not among those scheduled to deploy. Feeling left out, he volunteered for an opening that sent himdirectly to Iraq. David’s duties as a corporal included security op-


erations in the western province of Al Anbar and “pursuing intelligence on high-value targets.” In other words, he was in the thick of it.


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