Bill Bowling's Shaw Story

I remember a guy, Herb Shapiro, I think it was; he was a big foodie and about once a week he'd come to camp with a lot of food. It was kind of amazing because people realized after a while that Herb was actually very serious about food and he would like to buy things, exotic things, food products, that the whole camp probably couldn't use so much, because kids didn’t want to eat the stuff, but some of the counselors loved it.

I made good friends with lots of the adults, and some of the kids, and we had a good time. It changed my life because I got to know Jan Taylor. She became a good friend of mine at Shaw and later I got interested in film and I ended up working for her then husband, Tom Taylor, at the Center for the Moving Image; I actually got involved in the film industry and eventually moved to California and essentially had my career there.

Bob had a steamship, the Oceanid, and he would take it out; he paid for a captain for this, and Moody was the name of the captain and so every once in a while we'd go on a trip with this boat. It came from England and was some kind of former British Navy vessel. We could take probably the whole camp, which must have been 40 people. And at least one time we went to Victoria, BC, and we camped and everyone slept on the Empress Hotel floor and had a good time except when we were just leaving the harbor of Victoria and the captain, Moody, was working so hard to stoke up the boiler that he collapsed and fell down in a faint. It was right at the time where we were trying to get through the bar. So we had to rush down to the engine room and revive him. He's the only person who could really operate that boat. We had very good times on that boat.

The adults drank a lot of beer, as I remember. The food was good and everybody seemed to have a great time. The weather in the San Juans in the summer is really good. I remember at least once we could see the northern lights from camp, which is the only time in my life I’ve seen them.

I was good friends with Rosie and Dave Williams, Malcolm and Sheila Lea, not to mention Adi Angell, and then of course John was the main instigator. He was a big man with great energy and a very positive person; he was really something. I remember two horses out in the field. We would just camp in tents along the field by the shore. And John Angell Jr., called Demi-John, was up there sometimes. I remember the Williams kids, Jevan, Garth, and Taffy, and the Leas, Tom and Cathy.

That first year, I was kind of an outsider at Shaw because the rest of the people centered around MLC. But they welcomed me, and they did that partly because Bob was my sponsor and also the camp sponsor. Everybody got along and I got along with everybody. They were great days, great, great times. Different times for sure and I just have good memories.

— Bill Bowling, 2025

I THINK I was on the Shaw Island team for three summers, and it all came about because of my friendship with Bob Ellis. I was the caretaker of Bob's house in Portland, Oregon, for a year or so; Bob owned extensive property on Shaw Island he called Cedar Rock, and somehow, I found out about the summer camp going on early in the summer of 1970 and I asked Bob if I could go and join the Shaw Island group which I did, joining in the middle of the summer. I had a good time getting to know all the people there and then the next two summers I went up again and did the same thing. I was a so-called counselor, but we were just kind of a partying group of people with many kids from MLC and then some adults and we'd hang out; John Angell organized the whole thing really and it was his show.

I think the beginning was when Bob got to know John and Adi Angell and they would come over and socialize with him; I think they also all attended the Unitarian Universalist Church in downtown Portland. I think they came up with the idea where they would get federal money to pay for a camp for children on Bob’s Shaw Island property and they pulled it off!

Bob Ellis was a very generous, kind soul. He wasn't the kind of person who would camp outside in a tent, but he had his house and three small buildings on his main property on the other side of the cove from camp. He would have guests come over to his house and they had to walk through the woods along the shore, about a mile probably, maybe less than that from the main camp.

Bill Bowling

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