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The man who served his country in World War II and later brought A&W to Portage County and Northeast Ohio celebrated his 100th birthday with friends and family.
Vernon Rowen celebrated a milestone birthday on February 10th at the Ravenna VFW. Dozens of people came to pay homage to his military service, which began when he was a teenager, and to share memories of the A&W franchise, which began in Ravenna in 1956.
Roen’s son Ted and daughter-in-law Elma hosted the celebration.
young pilot
Born on February 3, 1924 in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, Lowen enrolled in flight school immediately after graduating from high school at age 17. When he turned 18, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps and became a B-24. Bomber pilot of World War II.
Loen said he served for three and a half years, taking assignments throughout the United States as well as Africa, Europe and Italy before returning home. “I’ve never had a scratch,” he said.
Woody Truman, a veteran service officer with Portage County Veterans Services, tells the story differently. He said he and other staff members talked for hours with Roen about military service. He said Loen flew more than 300 missions before being shot down over Europe in March 1945. When the group asked Roen how he felt after he was lifted to the ground by parachute, Roen said, “What a great day it was today.” was.
He said Loen was 18 when he began his military service, but he doubted he understood the significance of what he did.
“I don’t think he understands how difficult it would be if we tried to do it,” he said.
President Truman said it is unclear how many World War II veterans remain in Portage County. The National World War II Museum estimates that of the war’s 16 million veterans, 119,550 are currently alive and 131 are dying every day.
Missy Moore, commander of the VFW post in Ravenna, presents Loen with a shadow box containing medals, including the Air Medal with a Gold Star, the European/African and Middle East Campaign with a Silver Star, and Victory in World War II. Presented. medal, and the Good American Conduct Medal.
Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski hailed Roen as “a great American success story” and said he wanted to thank “you for being a great American hero.”
Loen said he did not believe he was a hero, but his friends and family insisted he was. However, he admitted that he was very young when he joined the army.
“God, I look at these pictures of myself and I’m amazed,” he said.
Take a gamble in Ravenna
In 1956, Rowen took what his son Ted described in 2016 as a “giant gamble.” He and his first wife, Lila Jean, sold their Wisconsin home and moved to Ravenna after searching for a city with a population of 10,000 to 20,000 that could support an A&W franchise. Ted Rowen said his father moved his family to Ravenna with “basically nothing” and started a business, where he, his older brother Kevin and younger sister Nancy worked and grew up. He said he did.
Roen said he drove across the United States in the 1950s to meet a friend who was running a successful A&W franchise in Nebraska. Roen saw root beer stands popping up all over Wisconsin and knew he wanted to start his own business.
Over the years, he said, people started flocking to his business. Thousands of people got their first jobs there, including Portage County Attorney Victor Vigrucci.
“It was more than I could have dreamed of,” Loen said. “I have always been grateful to the people of Portage County.”
Roen purchased the property at the corner of East Main Street and Linden Avenue in January of that year, and the drive-in was open by May, said his daughter-in-law, Elma.
The Kent location opened a year later and is still operated by Rowen’s son, Kevin. Ted and Erma Rowen operated the Ravenna store until it was sold in 2018. At one time, the family also owned franchise stores in Tallmadge and Maple Heights, but both are now closed. Erma Rowen said that Rowen was confident that A&W would open more stores in Ohio, and that when she did, she wanted her family to own and operate the franchise, so various family members would She said she was running a business.
Ted Rowen said his father stopped doing administrative work at the restaurant three years ago, adding that he envies his father’s management skills.
When the Ravenna location celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2016, Ted Loewen said it was originally small and the menu consisted of root beer, hot dogs, shakes, popcorn and barbecued beef. A few years later, burgers were added to the “burger family” which included daddy, mommy, baby and teen burgers. All remain on the menu, but only Papa Burger retains its name.
In 1956, a hot dog cost 20 cents and a Coney dog cost 25 cents.
“And my father actually had better profits than most of us today,” Ted Lowen said at the time.
Mayor Frank Semann handed out a proclamation honoring Mr. Lowen. He said that when he was a kid, he and his friends would ride their bikes to A&W and buy root beer to accompany him on his journeys. But he said he underestimated how volatile root beer was.
“That place is an icon,” he said. “Today is a well-deserved honor.”
two wives, two lives
In 1983, Rowen lost his first wife, Lila, to leukemia. They were married for 37 years.
He remarried in 1985. He and his second wife, Katie, have also been married for 37 years.
“I lived two lives with two wonderful women,” he said.
Reporter Diane Smith can be reached at 330-298-1139 or dsmith@recordpub.com.
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