Freddy Fowler, Sr.

Freddy Fowler, Sr. served in the United States Army and achieved the rank of E-4 Specialist. 

A Vietnam-era veteran, Mr. Fowler joined the Army in September 1965 at the age of 20. As a military policeman with classified security clearance, he was stationed on a Nike-Hercules Missile Site in South Florida.

 In June 1967, Mr. Fowler was sent to Southeast Asia, where he served as a military advisor to Thailand’s government. He was honorably discharged from the Army in July 1968. After his time in the military, Mr. Fowler sought to pursue higher education through the City University of New York system, first enrolling in New York City Community College (now known as the New York City College of Technology). From that institution, he received an Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts in January 1972. Later, Mr. Fowler attended night classes at Brooklyn College, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in June 1980. 

Mr. Fowler’s service to his community continued in his professional life after the military, where he was employed with the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), formally known as the New York State Division for Youth, for 25 years. In his role at OCFS, he served as a Youth Division Counselor and was tasked with supervising restrictive placements and youth offenders. Mr. Fowler retired from the Ella McQueen Limited Secure Facility in April 2002, which concluded over two decades of distinguished public service to the State of New York.

Mr. Fowler has lived in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn for 67 years and has continued to serve his community in a myriad of ways. He has been an active member of Brooklyn Community Board 4 for nearly 20 years, where he concurrently served as a member of the Public Safety Committee and the Economic Development, Housing, and Land Use Committee, before focusing his advocacy on the latter in recent years.