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Obituaries

Actor and Athlete Elwynn "Wynn" Guy Rowell III, 1942-2011

Rowell grew up in Imperial Beach, was in the Navy during the Vietnam War and later acted in plays and on television

While many families across the country were gathered around the dinner table last month for Thanksgiving dinner, Jack Rowell and his sister Becky were boarding a plane to Albuquerque, NM, to see their ailing father in the hospital. The siblings made it to the hospital in time to pray, express their love to their father and to ultimately say good bye.

“I feel really blessed that it went the way it did if he had to die,” Jack Rowell said.

“I'm so thankful that we got to see him, and I got to pray with him and just be there, especially for his wife," he said.

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Elwynn “Wynn” Guy Rowell III passed away in the early morning Friday, Nov. 25, two hours after his son and daughter made it to the hospital. He was 69.

Jack said his father died of lung cancer, which no one knew about but his wife Peggy.

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“We didn’t know about it. He might have known before but we found out officially on Thanksgiving. He was already in the hospital a week,” Jack Rowell said.

“He definitely did not want to alarm anybody, but he’s that old school kind of guy that didn’t like going to the hospital. Just thought he would get better and didn’t like people worrying about him.”

Rowell III was born on July 24, 1942 in Long Beach, CA, and raised in Imperial Beach. The Class of 1960 Mar Vista High School graduate was a saxophone player in the high school band and played baseball, football and basketball.

While at Mar Vista, “Wynn” got scouted by Major League Baseball’s Baltimore Orioles before opting to attend San Diego State University to play football and baseball.

Rowell III did not finish his schooling at SDSU, so he enlisted in the U.S. Navy where he served for four years as part of a flight crew during the Vietnam War. 

Wynn was also an actor who took some courses at Southwestern College who has been plays like The Sunshine Boys, Inherit the Wind and P.S. Your Cat is Dead, his son Jack said.

He also played an attorney on the NBC Universal television show “In Plain Sight.”

Although “Wynn” spent the last years of his life in New Mexico, he came back to Imperial Beach to visit his brother, attend high school reunions or hang out with old friends.

Wynn is survived by his wife Peggy; son Jack Rowell; daughter Becky Green; brother Chris Rowell and two granddaughters.

Funeral services are scheduled for Jan. 14 in San Diego. To learn more about his funeral arrangements email Rowellrealestate@gmail.com

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