Dale W. Rowe

Dale Rowe, age 87, died peacefully at his home in Raleigh, NC on July 3, 2026. He will be buried at the St. Joan of Arc Cemetery in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin on the site that was part of the Rowe family dairy farm and donated to the church for their cemetery. He will literally be “going home”.

Dale always felt he lived a charmed life. That opinion was felt to the extent he documented it in his Autobiography, “Call Me Lucky”. From his early to final years, he felt he was truly blessed. He felt blessed with great parents, siblings, relatives, wife and children. He felt blessed by his relationships made throughout his life in school, work, military and retirement.

Dale is preceded in death by his parents, Earl & Amy Rowe. He is survived by his wife, Marty, his sons Steven (Yong) of Huntsville, AL and John of Raleigh, NC, his brother Lee Rowe, his sister Gladys Rowe Sheldon, many nieces and nephews and other loved ones.

He was born and raised in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin and attended Brown Street Elementary and Oconomowoc High Schools. He graduated from the University of North Dakota with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. At the University, Dale served as Commander of the Army ROTC Battalion and was named a Distinguished Military Graduate. He was a member of Sigma Tau, honorary engineering fraternity and Lambda Chi Alpha social fraternity.

Dale served as an officer in the US Transportation Corp at Fort Eustis, Virginia, where he was assigned to the Transportation Research Command. He served on active duty and was active in the US Army Reserve for seven years.

Dale was employed by the General Electric Company for twenty-eight years, where he worked as an engineer on communication satellites, the Apollo Moon Landing program, and other military and space projects. As an engineer at GE, he authored several award-winning technical papers, including “Data Systems Dynamic Simulation – a total system for data system design assessments and trade studies” and “Determination of the Wind Response of Saturn V by Statistical methods”.

He served as the Manager of GE’s Space Division in Huntsville, AL, General Manager of Military Programs in Washington DC, General Manager of Silicon Systems Department and General Manager of Power Semiconductors in Research Triangle Park, NC. He was afforded the opportunity by GE to retire early and do a management buyout of one of the businesses he managed at GE and served as President and CEO of the spin-out company, GESCAN International, until the sale of the company to SAS Software in 1993. He later took a position as Senior VP of Engineering and Director of Commercialization at RTI International in Research Triangle Park, NC. He was employed by RTI for ten years. At RTI, Dale was responsible for spinning out a start-up electronics company, Ziptronix, and served as interim CEO. Dale retired from RTI in 2003.

In retirement Dale enjoyed pursuing the goals in his “bucket list”. These goals included (1) getting his motorcycle driver’s license endorsement so he could get a touring bike and ride around!, (2) getting his Commercial Drive License (CDL) so he could drive 18-wheelers across the country (he fell short of achieving that goal but did go to CDL school!), (3) restoring old cars and tractors and (4) enjoying adventure travels with Marty, Family and Friends as well as annual outings with sons, Steve and John. Dale and Marty went on vacation adventures, including dog sledding in Canada and narrow boating on the canals of England and Wales.

Also in retirement, Dale formed a company, Greybeards Research Group to perform contract research studies. He became an author and in addition to his Autobiography, published a book on Climate Change, “A Layman’s Guide to Global Warming”, a documentary of the Trump-Russian collusion debacle, “Planted Evidence”, and others.

From the time his sons Steve and John were born, Dale enjoyed sharing interests with them. They participated in the YMCA Indian Guides together. They joined up with other neighborhood kids their age and raced Go Karts. They enrolled in a Continuing Education class at the University of Alabama-Huntsville named, “Automobilia” where they learned to appreciate classic cars and their restoration.

Later in life, Dale and his sons shared their interest in cars. They scheduled annual events including auto racing in open wheel race cars and retired NASCAR cars. They drove 3-wheeled motorcycles through the mountains of Virginia. They drove tanks and demolished wrecked cars. They also took several fishing trips to Canada with their Rowe cousins. They rented an electric car and took a road trip to see what it was like to experience the angst of running out of power between charging stations. The Rowe guys attended classic car auctions every year.

Dale greatly enjoyed the time with his family and the daily sunroom conversations with Marty on current events, politics, sports, the English Monarchy and the health care debacle!

Dale’s quick wit, words of wisdom and conversational banter will be greatly missed by all that had the privilege of knowing him.

In lieu of flowers, Please Pay it Forward, do something kind for someone…make them feel Lucky.

A Memorial Service will be held on July 15, 2026 at Pagenkopf Funeral Home (2228 N. Silver Maple Lane, Oconomowoc, WI 53066). Visitation will take place from 9:30am to 11:00am, with a Prayer Service to follow, then onto St. Joan of Arc Cemetery.

May Dale rest peacefully…back home.