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John Bowis on the future of the auto industry ~\n\n"Our industry is under assault, it's going to change, but my job is not to fight that change, my job is to figure out a path forward-and embrace it."\n\nJohn Bowis, President/Owner Chevy Chase Acura in studio interview with Andy Ockershausen\n\nAndy Ockershausen:\tThis is Andy Ockershausen, and this is Our Town. As a special guest on Our Town, the man whose family epitomizes Our Town. In 1939, the Bowis family started Chevy Chase Cars. I don't know what it was\ncalled then, but-\nJohn Bowis:\tChevy Chase Motor Company. \nAndy Ockershausen:\t... John Bowis is now the surviving member of the Bowis family. He's a father of five, and they're all gonna be running the business someday.\nJohn Bowis:\tMaybe.\nAndy Ockershausen:\tJohn, welcome to Our Town.\nJohn Bowis:\tThank you, Andy.\nAndy Ockershausen:\tYou know, we have such a relationship with your family before you were born of course, with your grandfather, Art, and Jim Gibbons, who was my guru-\nJohn Bowis:\tRight, good friends.\nAndy Ockershausen:\t... and he led me in this business, my mentor, and we started together. So, the name Bowis always meant a lot, but I didn't know about the automobile business, because I thought they were in the real estate business. \nJohn Bowis:\tRight. \nAndy Ockershausen:\tWere they not?\nAutomobile Business is Foundation for Art Bowis Legacy\nJohn Bowis:\tThe automobile business is what allowed my grandfather to invest in real estate, so real estate was his second job, but the automobile business is what brought him to the table.\nAndy Ockershausen:\tBut, when you opened, Bethesda, it was not like Bethesda now.\nJohn Bowis:\tNot at all, not at all. \nAndy Ockershausen:\tIn 1939, I've seen pictures.\nJohn Bowis:\t1939. So, in 1939, my grandfather was working at a Chevy store downtown in D.C. Most of the automobile dealerships-\nAndy Ockershausen:\tWas in downtown Washington-\nFirst Came NIH and the National Navy Medical Center\nJohn Bowis:\t... they were called agencies back then, were located in D.C. There were very few dealerships in the suburbs, but my grandfather wanted to work for himself, and he was in sales, and there was another friend of his, Bob Suddith, Sr., they decided to partner together and go open up a Chevrolet store some place. They could have gone in any direction outside of the city, and my grandfather realized, or noticed, that the government opened up two locations in Bethesda just the year prior. \n\tOne was NIH, National Institutes of Health. The US government bought the-\nAndy Ockershausen:\tGolf course, right? \nJohn Bowis:\t... bought the golf course. And also the Wilson farm. It was the Wilson farm, Wilson Lane. Dr. Wilson. It was a long-time Bethesda family. The federal government bought the Wilson farm. They bought the Woodmont Golf Course. And then across the street, they opened up ... they broke ground on the National Navy Medical Center, which is now Walter Reed. \n\tMy grandfather decided to go out to Bethesda and scope out property, and he landed on this property right next to the old Bethesda Theater. It used to be the Boro Theatre. \nAndy Ockershausen:\tI remember it very well. \nThen came Chevy Chase Motor Company\nJohn Bowis:\tThat whole block was owned by a guy named Sidney Lust, who had a number of movie theaters. That was his business. Sidney Lust's idea was, open up a movie theater and that would be the anchor, and then he'd have a strip center around it. There was parking out back and so forth. Well, this was 1938, 1939, and it was still the height of the recession, and he couldn't get the retail center concept going, so my grandfather went out to look at part of that property. He and Bob Suddith walked the property for almost an hour, and my grandfather said, "This would be a fantastic place for a dealership.", and his partner said, "Yeah, but we've been here for almost an hour, and not a single car has driven by." \nJanice Iacona Ockershausen:\tThe good old days.