But he was also an active participant in community events, from working with Providence Alaska Medical Center to build its new cancer center to attending dinners for nonprofit groups, said Al Parrish, Providence's chief executive.
And, said friends, Bowles lived to fish and hunt in Alaska's wilderness.
Ed Gohr, a former Conoco Phillips employee, and Bob Lacher, who works for CH2M Hill, said they took Bowles on his first snowmachining trip a few years ago and were snowmachining with him on the trip near Spencer Glacier where he died.
The three of them were getting ready for a brown bear hunt off the Denali Highway this spring using snowmachines, said Lacher. "That's primarily why we snowmachined. We're not back-country hot-rodders. We have snowmachines so we can hunt."
They were among a group of four to five close-knit friends that also included Alan Gage, a Conoco Phillips employee who went on the Spencer trip and was missing after the avalanche. Gage has not been found.
A major player
Bowles, 57, came out of retirement in 2004 to become president of Conoco Phillips Alaska.
He said in a 2005 interview that he wouldn't have come back to work in Houston or some other place.
"I don't think so. The outdoors, hunting and fishing -- things that really are core to Alaska -- are draws to me," he said.
Alaska was the first place Bowles remembers living, he said in that interview. When a preschooler, in territorial days, his dad was stationed at Elmendorf Air Force Base.
Bowles had worked for Phillips Petroleum Co., Conoco Phillips' predecessor, for 28 years, including serving as vice president of Phillips' natural gas gathering and processing subsidiary. At his retirement from Phillips in 2002, he was president of the company's Americas division, including Alaska.
After taking over Conoco Phillips Alaska, Bowles quickly became a major player in Alaska oil and gas politics.
He stood at former Gov. Frank Murkowski's side in Fairbanks in October 2005 as Murkowski announced Conoco Phillips, the state's top oil and gas producer, had agreed to base terms of taxes and ownership if the North Slope oil companies built a pipeline to bring North Slope gas to market. The deal included a tax freeze on both gas and oil.
Legislators rejected the deal.
Two years ago, Conoco under Bowles joined with BP and announced they were nonetheless pursuing their own gas pipeline project, called the Denali project. The project is ongoing.
Bowles was in the news briefly in connection with the corruption trials involving Alaska legislators.
The FBI recorded a phone conversation Bowles had about oil tax legislation with Veco Corp. chief Bill Allen. Allen was later convicted of bribing legislators over that 2006 legislation.
Nothing in the conversation indicated Bowles knew Allen had bribed legislators.
Bowles, in a statement to company employees, said after the taped conversation came out that Veco had "cast a pall on the image of our company and our industry in Alaska."
In the community
Friends and associates of Bowles say he did much to mend the image over the course of his leadership at Conoco Phillips.
University of Alaska President Mark Hamilton, said he helped the university "enormously," advocating for Conoco Phillips to contribute $15 million for a new science building at the University of Alaska Anchorage. That building opened last fall.
Likewise, Bowles worked with Parrish at Providence to secure a $5 million contribution from the oil company for the hospital's new cancer center.
He turned up at all sorts of community events.
"You go to a Ducks Unlimited event, the mayor's ball, the Boys and Girls Club -- Jim is there with Kathy (his wife) showing the flag for Conoco Phillips," said Hamilton.
"Jim's generosity in giving back to our community set a high standard for Alaska business leaders," said Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan, who counted Bowles as personal friend. "Countless other examples of Jim's vision are evident around Anchorage and, indeed, the entire state," Sullivan said in a statement.
Outdoorsy guy
The governor and Alaska's entire congressional delegation sent out statements praising Bowles and offering condolences, as did other oil industry leaders.
Associates and friends alike said though he moved in executive circles, he came across as a regular guy.
His outdoor buddies said he helped with whatever was going on, but wouldn't take help himself.
Lacher said last August he and Bowles went on a difficult sheep hunt in the Brooks Range "and overstretched both of our physical capabilities."
"I wanted to take some of Jim's load (from his pack)," said Lacher. "He was a little older and definitely smaller. ... There's times when he was on his hands and knees. ... I wanted to help him but he wouldn't let me."
"He was tough and never complained."
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