predecessor successor children birth_place religion party birth_date term_start order spouse article_title term_end alma_mater
arthur r. outlaw samuel l. jones michael shawn dow christopher steele dow anna lynn dow south carolina born and raised nazarene , christian independent 1947 1989 106th mayor of mobile patsy busby dow mike dow
 2005 university of south alabama
mike dow

michael craig dow -lrb- born 1947 -rrb- is an american politician who was the four-term mayor of mobile , alabama -lrb- 1989 -- 2005 -rrb- , and is widely credited in the area , along with arthur outlaw , whose 15-year plan he followed , of spurring the redevelopment of downtown mobile .
he was mentioned as a potential gubernatorial candidate in 2010 , but declined to run .
mike dow was born in south carolina and was raised as a foster child .
he had a troubled childhood .
his father left them when he was ten and his mother was plagued with mental illness .
as a consequence he became a ward of the state .
later at about the age of fourteen he was taken in by his maternal grandfather , henry gainous .
his service in vietnam included a tour in the a shau valley -lrb- hamburger hill -rrb- .
he served as a paratrooper in his first tour of duty and as a door gunner for subsequent tours .
in a fourth helicopter crash his pilot and best friend , johnny legg , perished .
mr. dow was following his friend in another helicopter at the time and this precipitated his decision to leave the military .
he still keeps a rubbing of mr. legg 's name from the vietnam memorial in his office .
upon leaving vietnam he received a master 's degree in accounting from the university of south alabama .
in 1979 , he co-founded qms -lrb- quality micro systems -rrb- with his brother-in-law , jim busby .
dow functioned at one time or another as vice president of sales , marketing , and accounting for the company .
quality micro systems , a printer manufacturing company , at one time competed with giants like hewlett packard , canon , xerox , and tektronix and was listed in the fortune 500 .
dow is credited with creating the company 's european distribution network .
after black monday the company was forced to downsize and was eventually purchased by minolta to become minolta-qms in 2000 .
prior to this dow left qms and entered the race for city council district 6 .
