Side effects ranging from uncontrollable vomiting to being wheelchair bound due to nerve damage plagued not only Bob but everyone trying to combat this illness. He watched as good friends who were also infected succumb to the virus or their own choice to leave this planet. He watched his 11 year marriage blossom and fade but through it all Bob never lost the will to survive. His survival became a symbol which took on physical form as the tattoos that cover his body. His latest, a phoenix rising on his back symbolizes "my willingness to never give up and the beauty of life."
Bob first began speaking publicly about HIV/AIDS when someone at AIDS Project Los Angeles suggested he speak at a high school. Nervous at first, he soon realized that sharing his story was empowering so he kept on doing it. Today Bob's outreach is on a national scale. Interviewed for TV, radio and newspaper Bob has also written articles for magazines, the web and AIDS Project Los Angeles' Positive living. He is the founder and president of HIVictorius Inc., an organization dedicated to raising awareness and educating youth and young adults about the stereotypes and stigmas surrounding HIV and AIDS as well as advocating for those suffering from the disease. This incredible visionary lives for the connections he makes with people around the country. "When I really talk with somebody, that's when I know I am glad to be alive," he says.
Bob is a living symbol that anything can be accomplished if you apply yourself physically, mentally and spiritually. His goal in life is to "not only survive but to thrive [and to] spread a message of hope to others with HIV/AIDS. We all need hope, no matter what. I want to be a messenger for hope and survival." Bob, to us here at Reynolds you are!
Bob was raised here in Oregon from ages 4 thru 18. He moved to Portland for a time in 1994 and Reynolds has been providing his eyewear ever since. "I'd be blind without you guys!" Bob currently resides in Madison, Wisconsin where he also volunteers for AIDS Network doing outreach and advocacy.
Here's to another 23 years of spreading that message of hope… Namaste!
If you saw our next subject on the street, he would most likely catch your eye - heavily muscled, sporting tattoos that cover most of his upper body and arms, gauge piercing in both ears. As one friend affectionately put it, he looks like "a pirate that eats small children." Nothing however could be further from the truth. In fact breaking down stereotypes is what Bob Bowers is all about. Bob is a 23 year survivor of HIV and AIDS. Diagnosed with the devastating virus at the tender age of 19 (the result of having shared a needle); the year was 1983 and this disease was about to take the world by surprise. No one could have been more stunned than Bob to learn of his infection.
At a time when 99% of all HIV/AIDS cases were homosexual men, Bob - heterosexual and a body builder at that, found himself facing a long and dark road. But adversity sometimes has a way of showing us the light. "For every negative thing I can say about HIV, I can also find something positive to say," says Bob. Infected during a time before the advent of anti-viral medications, Bob's survival and state of mind turned inward where he found a core of strength capable of sustaining him through trials most of us couldn't imagine. When the first medications to counter the effects of the virus began to appear it was a mixed blessing.