Life story: For Everett woman, teaching was a dream job

Published 11:28 pm Saturday, May 10, 2008

EVERETT — Many parents wish their sons and daughters a magical childhood.

Educator, mentor and friend Beth Chowen provided the boys and girls in her day care with more than entertainment.

She gave them love.

“She was a grandmother to everyone,” said Babby Skowyra. “She taught my daughter the alphabet, took her and the other children to the library and the pet store. She was a part of our family.”

Colleen Higbee, Chowen’s sister, said that it was her life’s ambition to help raise children.

“My sister, from the day I knew her, wanted to be a teacher and to work with children. It was her dream,” Higbee said. “Every Saturday we would play ‘school’ and she would always be the teacher.”

Chowen eventually graduated from Western Washington University with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and began putting it to good use at schools in Sedro-Woolley, eventually transferring to the Everett School District.

“She taught for 10 years and then took a break when she decided to have children,” Higbee said. “It was during that time that she told me what she really wanted to do was open her own preschool that isn’t just a day care but is also educational.”

And that’s exactly what she did.

Chowen and her husband, Terry, began to add on to their house to accommodate the preschool, transforming it into an educational wonderland for children.

“Their house and back yard was utopia for kids. They had a playroom, a back yard with toys, a koi pond, bushes that had blueberries, and strawberries,” Skowyra said. “Everything was a teaching tool for her. With the bushes she taught the kids how things grow, and with the toys how to share.”

Chowen’s expertise extended beyond the confines of her preschool and often into the lives of the parents of the children she taught. Skowyra remembers the pain of dropping her daughter Brooke off, the girl crying as she drove away. In tears, Skowyra called Chowen to make sure her daughter was OK.

“Then she asked me if I was OK,” Skowyra said. “That was our Bethy. She was so nurturing to not only our children but to us parents as well. She made everyone in her life a better person.”

Beth Chowen died April 30. She was 64.

She is survived by her husband, Terry, of Everett; son Trevor Chowyn and his wife, Meghan, of Vancouver; daughter Tara Rowland and her husband, Erik, of Port Orchard; her mother, Freda Brown of Bellingham; brother, Carroll Brown, and his wife, Cherri, of Snohomish; sister Suzan Williams and her husband, Dale, of Bellingham; and sister Colleen Higbee and her husband, Bob, of Everett.

Reporter Justin Arnold: 425-339-3432 or jarnold@heraldnet.com.