Miss-Delectable

Democrat & Chronicle: Local News

Even in death, Army Cpl. Kevin Mowl had a way of touching the school his father has headed for 15 years.

Yellow ribbons tied to trees on the school's campus have been waiting for his homecoming since a rally for him in September. A fund set up for students will carry on his connection with the school.

"We're going to Greece, Rome, Italy and Athens," said 16-year-old Richard Spiecker, a junior at the Rochester School for the Deaf, smiling over the excitement of a 10-day trip in April. Donations in Cpl. Mowl's memory are going toward the school's Travel Abroad Program, for juniors and seniors.

But even before Superintendent Harold Mowl Jr.'s son was mortally wounded in Iraq, the warm-hearted soldier found ways of moving the students.

In March, on a two-week leave from Iraq, he visited the School for the Deaf, telling students about his tours of duty, his sense of purpose, and how he handed out candy to the children in Iraq. Some of the students had been writing Cpl. Mowl letters and sending his unit books as part of a community service project, and they were thrilled to meet him in person and impressed with his sign language.

"He was a very nice person," said Rebecca Sterling, a junior from Henrietta.

"He was only home for two weeks and he made time to come to this school," said Derrick Behm, a senior from Hopewell Junction, Dutchess County. "We don't know a lot of soldiers here. We are all deaf, and we can't be soldiers. We don't get to meet those kind of people very often."

Rochester School for the Deaf has about 115 students in grades one through 12, as well as children in its pre-school programs.

Cpl. Mowl knew sign language because both of his parents are deaf, and teachers said they'd heard stories of how the young soldier had taught his platoon mates simple signs.

In September, one month after Cpl. Mowl was wounded, students and staff held a rally on the St. Paul Street campus to support Cpl. Mowl and his family. They wore T-shirts showing Cpl. Mowl's photo on a flag, and they gathered for a group picture in the school's auditorium, with a backdrop of a large flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol. It was then that the yellow ribbons were tied to campus tree trunks.

Last week, the flag at the school was at half-staff.

Social studies teacher Ann Cannarozzo said she remembered seeing Cpl. Mowl as an energetic young boy playing with deaf children at the school. When she saw him again last spring, he was a soldier, grown-up, humble but charismatic.

His visits brought the outside world into the school, Cannarozzo said.

"I think it hit home," she said. "It made the war a reality."

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shel90

Very touching and sad..

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jillio

**nodding**