Isabel McIntosh Fowler died Saturday, December 29, 2012 at Carol Woods Retirement Community in Chapel Hill. She was born in Orange, NJ on March 28, 1919, the daughter of George and Isabel Laing McIntosh. She graduated from Summit High School in Summit, NJ, and The Women’s College of the University of North Carolina (now UNC-G), where she received a BA degree in sociology in 1941.

Following graduation, she moved to Charleston, WV to work with the YWCA. It was there that she met George W. Fowler, a research chemist with Union Carbide. They married in July, 1943, and were married until his death in July of 2012, just a week before their 69th anniversary. They lived in Charleston until 1975, when they moved in retirement to Chapel Hill.

In Charleston during World War Two, Mrs. Fowler served with the Home Service corps of the American Red Cross. She was also an active volunteer with the Charleston Symphony orchestra’s women’s committee, the Kanawha Welfare Council, the Charleston United Fund, the Charleston chapter of the American Association of University Women (which she served as president), and was appointed by the State Board of Regents to the Advisory Council of West Virginia State College. The Fowlers were committed members of the First Presbyterian Church of Charleston, where Mrs. Fowler served as president of the Women of the Church and as elder. She became the first woman moderator of Kanawha Presbytery there in 1972.

After moving to Chapel Hill, Mrs. Fowler was a regular volunteer and president of the North Carolina Memorial Hospital auxiliary, a member of the Chapel Hill chapter of the American Association of University Women, a volunteer at the North Carolina Botanical Garden, UNC-TV, and the American Red Cross. She served on the Carol Woods residents’ council. She was also deeply involved in the work of Church Women United and the University Presbyterian Church, which she served faithfully as elder and Clerk of Session in addition to her active leadership in Presbyterian Women.

Mrs. Fowler was preceded in death by her husband, by her brother, George (Mac) McIntosh, and by her daughter, Jean Ellen Fowler. She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Bruce and Marjorie Fowler of South Charleston, WV, and her granddaughter, Elbia Vanessa Fowler of St. Albans, WV. A memorial service will be held at University Presbyterian Church in Chapel Hill on Saturday, February 16, 2013 at 11:00 a.m. A reception will follow at the church.