By Jennifer Decker [email protected] ANGOLA — Bob Sowles was such a big Oliver tractor fan that it was fitting a procession of some 21 of the the vehicles led him to his final resting place. The Angola farmer died at home on his 70th birthday, Aug. 4, from leukemia with his family by his side. "He said he wanted to be at least 70, so it wasn't a surprise to us," said his wife, Gloria Sowles. Bob was born on Aug. 4, 1946, in Coldwater, Michigan, to Shirley Dale and Arlene Jane (Lint) Sowles. They preceded him in death. Bob attended Scott Center School until it closed and later graduated from Fremont High School. He served in the Indiana National Guard for six years. Bob and Gloria married Dec. 21, 1968, at the Fremont United Methodist Church. They were married for 47 years. Bob knew farming best and worked the land all his life raising 160 acres of crops — corn, soybeans, hay and wheat — and some 20 Angus cattle. "He was always on the go. He didn't sit inside and watch sports," Gloria said. One of his sons, Chad, agreed. "He worked seven days a week, Monday through Friday for 36 years at Aro as a tool-and-die maker and machinist. He'd come home, change and worked the farm," Chad said. "He was a very hard-working person — it was a curse." Then, there were Bob's 20-some antique tractors, and he liked his Olivers best. His family said that was probably because he grew up with them and he loved to take them for a ride. Gloria said he did have a few Massey-Fergusons at some time. He was a member of the Steuben County Antique Power Association. Chad served on the association's board with his father. The association and other area groups decided on the procession to the Scott Cemetery when Bob died. "He said he wasn't going to the cemetery in a hearse. We had an older Dodge, put it in the shop and got it running with my brother," Chad said. Gloria said her husband would have loved it. "We feel he was laughing, thinking he was glad he wasn't in a hearse," she said. Bob later worked at Trine University for 12 years as a groundskeeper until last fall, when he became ill. There, he still rode a tractor when work called for it along with other machinery. Aside from farming, Gloria said she and Bob loved to travel to "God's country," as she put it, Watersmeet, Michigan, located in the Upper Peninsula. "He liked to go up north to Watersmeet and watch eagles and otters play," Gloria said. "We saw a deer swimming, and he almost hit it with the boat." Another time, she said laughing, they discovered a bear cub after it rolled down a hill, making quite the noise, into water. Then, there was dancing by the Sowleses. "We went dancing – I don't care which kind, old-fashioned two-step, polka, fast dance, slow dance. He learned to square dance, but I could never teach him the two-step," Gloria said. Bob's leukemia was diagnosed last November. He was too sick to do the fall harvest and fretted over it. "He stopped in my shop. It was November and there were crops in the field. He said, 'Do what you have to do,'" Chad said. So, Chad, other family, friends and neighbors helped bring in the harvest and collected wood for winter. It was tough for Bob not being able to help with work he'd done all his life. "It was very hard on him. Sitting in the house wasn't good. It was like caging a bear," Gloria said. Bob also is survived by another son, Jarrod Sowles, nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.