One of the brightest, articulate and assertive advocates of Child Protective Services reform, Bill Bowen, has died of a heart attack.
Before his death, Bowen was trying to raise money to produce a full length version of his 30 minute documentary film, Innocence Destroyed. Innocence Destroyed exposes the deaths of thousands of children while in the care of Child Protective Services.
I had several long late night conversations with Bill Bowen via telephone this summer and while we talked about everything, and while he had many irons in the fire, his top priority was finishing Innocence Destroyed as well as helping people initiate class action lawsuits against Child Protective Services agencies in all fifty states.
Bowen, a former fire fighter and federal investigator, is also known for exposing the New York City Fire Department in a book, Radio Silence F.D.N.Y. The Betrayal of New York's Bravest, which he coauthored with Battalion Chief John Joyce. The book describes how 125 New York City firefighters and numerous civilians lost their lives on 9/11 due to problems with their two-way radios.
Many of us only became friends with Bill in the past year. Some of us hooked up with him on Facebook, where he had many friends.
We will all miss him.
My hope is that a filmmaker will take up where Bill left off and finish his documentary because I believe it is what he wanted to leave as his legacy.
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