Martha Bowman Ebeling

EBELING, Martha (Marty) Bowman, formerly of Oakwood, died at Hospice of Dayton on Tuesday, August 2, 2016. Daughter of George W. and Merea Miley Bowman, Marty was born in Greenville, Ohio on June 6, 1932. She was graduated from Greenville High School as class valedictorian in 1950. In 1954 she was graduated magna cum laude from Ohio Wesleyan University, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa academic honorary, Mortar Board women's honorary and Pi Beta Phi Fraternity for Women. She served as President of the Association of Women Students. Marty was married for 61 years to local attorney Harry Guion Ebeling, who survives her. Surviving are children: Leisa Lowrey and husband Jon, of Jasper, Indiana; Mark Ebeling of Dayton, and the Rev. Amy McCreath and husband Brian, of Boston; grandchildren Robert Lowrey (Heather), Thomas Lowrey, Gabriel McCreath and James McCreath. Also surviving are brother, George Bowman (Audrey), niece Kathy Gonzalez (Peter) and nephew David Bowman (LeNore), all of California. Marty was active as a volunteer in the Dayton community where she served as President of the Junior League of Dayton and chairman of the League's Town Hall Lecture Series. She received the Junior League Katharine Kennedy Brown Award for Outstanding Community Service in 2009. She served on the Oakwood Planning Commission, Board of Trustees of Children's Medical Center, on the boards of Big Brothers-Big Sisters Association, the Dayton Fund for Home Rehabilitation and the Alzheimers' Association. She was president of Planned Parenthood Association of Miami Valley, fundraiser for Wright State Theater and Stivers School for the Arts, and a member of the vestry of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. She chaired the establishment of the Ohio Iota Chapter of Pi Beta Phi Fraternity at the University of Dayton in 1989, spearheaded the building of their chapter house in 2004, and was first chairman of the Floral Fantasy, a fundraiser establishing a scholarship at the University of Dayton. Marty was a member of the Dayton Country Club and a charter member of Ham-Lets Play Group. Marty revitalized the speech and debate program at Oakwood High School in 1983, and served as an active volunteer coach at Oakwood for 19 years. She organized and raised money to establish the John M. Martin Fund of the Oakwood Educational Foundation to support the Oakwood forensic programs and give scholarships to outstanding Oakwood students. She was elected to the Oakwood Teachers' Hall of Honor in 2003. As a National Forensic League two diamond coach and president of the Ohio High School Speech League, she worked to establish an endowment fund for the benefit of Ohio students in forensics. In 1999 she was elected to the OHSSL Hall of Fame and received the Distinguished Coach Award of the Speech Communication Association of Ohio. Services will be held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 33 West Dixon Ave., Oakwood, at 10:00am on Friday, August 5, 2016, with inurnment immediately thereafter at St. Paul's Columbarium. The Rev. Jack Koepke will officiate. Following the inurnment, the family will receive friends at the Dayton Country Club, 555 Kramer Rd., Oakwood. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Harry G. and Martha B. Ebeling Theatre Scholarship at Wright State University, 3460 Colonel Glenn Highway, Dayton, OH 45435, the John M. Martin Fund, Oakwood Board of Education, 20 Rubicon Road, Dayton, OH 45409 or University of Dayton Ebeling-Ross Scholarship, 300 College Park, Dayton, OH 45409.

Funeral Home:
Kettering Routsong Funeral Home
2100 E. Stroop Rd.
Kettering, OH
US 45429