Lt. Col. Hartman Baxter Mowery Jr.

Lt. Col. Hartman Baxter Mowery, Jr., 88, of Denver, Colorado passed away Tuesday, July 21, 2026 at The Courtyards at Mountain View in Denver, Colorado. Baxter was educated in Salisbury City Schools, including Frank B. John and Wiley, and graduated from then Boyden High School in 1956. He earned an appointment to the U. S. Military Academy at West Point and graduated as a 2d Lieutenant in 1960. Later in 1970, he was awarded the Degree of Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering from Purdue University. He served 20 years in the U. S. Army Infantry and in 1980 retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. During the War in Viet Nam, Baxter served as a combat infantryman assigned to the 41st Vietnamese Ranger Battalion and operated against the communist Viet Cong from in and around Saigon to the tropical rain forests along the Cambodian border in the Mekong River Delta. His military decorations include the Legion of Merit, two awards of the Silver Star for valor, three Purple Hearts, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm. Significant assignments later in his military career were Director of Plans and Training (G-3) of the 4th Infantry Division and Commander of the 1st Battalion, 22d Infantry at Fort Carson, CO. In 1961, while a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, KY, Baxter met the love of his life, Bonnie Carolyn Loper, of Jackson, MS. They were married in Jackson on September 2, 1962. Bonnie and Baxter have three children, two of which were born at the U. S. Army Hospital in Berlin. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on September 2, 2012. After the Army, Baxter worked as a Design Physicist of Nuclear Weapons at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. He retired from Los Alamos in 1993 and then worked for 7 more years as a free lance scientist for the U. S. Department of Energy helping to clean up uranium and plutonium wastes at old chemical plants that were built during WWII. Baxter is survived by his children and their spouses Scott A. Mowery and Danette C. Mowery of Asheville, Cynthia M. Begley and Michael E. Begley of Denver, and Edward F. Mowery and Gail M. Mowery of Albuquerque; also, his nine grandchildren: Austin, Daniel, Ruth, Samuel, and Joshua Mowery; Zachary, Lucas, Jason, and Kathryn Begley. He was predeceased by his lovely wife Bonnie of Salisbury; his paternal grandparents, Earnest L. and Carrie Hartman Mowery, and his father Hartman Baxter Mowery, Sr., all of 127 E. Monroe St.; also by his maternal grandparents Walter F. and Ada Rattz, his mother Merle Cruse Larrabee, and his step father Edward M. (Ted) Larrabee, all of 601 W. Council St. Visitation will be held from 9-10am Tuesday, July 28, 2026 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. A Mass of Christian Burial will follow at 10am in the church sanctuary. Burial with military honors will conclude in the church cemetery. Summersett Funeral Home is serving the Mowery family. Online condolences may be made at www.summersettfuneralhome.com.

Lt. Col. Hartman Baxter Mowery Jr.

May 21, 1938 - July 21, 2026