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   Bowyer, whose father had been a stonemason, worked as a builder for 16 years before being hired in 1973 to teach building trades at Blacksburg High School, which he helped build. He began as an assistant football coach there in 1974, and stayed at both jobs until he retired three years ago.

   “He knew it all,” Poff said. “He made it fun.”

   Bowyer’s widow, Geraldine, remembers being awakened shortly after midnight by the fire. Her husband, son Eddie and grandchildren Zach and Katie were also in the home.

   After she and Paul Bowyer exited the house, her husband went back inside after his granddaughter. He was unable to reach her, but both he and Katie were pulled from the fire by his sons.

   Katie Bowyer was seriously injured in the fire and was hospitalized at the University of Virginia Burn Center in Charlottesville. She has now returned to Blacksburg Middle School.

   Geraldine Bowyer got in touch with Tim Lawrence, president of Blue Ridge Home Improvement, in May for advice on rebuilding and dealing with the insurance. “He came and looked,” she said. “That’s how it started.”

   “All along, we’d had a lot of people saying they wanted to help out, a lot of Paul’s previous students, you know,” Lawrence said. “He taught so many of the people within the trades.” Others remembered him as a coach, Lawrence said, “so one way or the other, there’s a lot of connections there.”

   Lawrence began recruiting and put a link on the company’s Web site, and people began volunteering to donate money, materials and time.

   “Virtually all of them were anxious to pitch in and donate their time and expertise,” Lawrence said. “So it’s turned out to be a pretty good thing.”

   Bowyer had built the home himself. The volunteers are going to try to preserve some of the brick walls that are still standing.

   “Basically, it’s going to be a new house, with the exception of the walls we’re saving,” Lawrence said.
   The kitchen and living room will be combined into a great room, the bedrooms and kitchen will be enlarged a little, and a bathroom will be added.

   Once the preliminary work is done, each part of the construction will be carried out in the traditional fashion rather than in a marathon “Extreme Makeover” weeklong project. “If everything goes well, we should have her back in by the end of summer,” Lawrence said.

   “Just a super-nice guy,” was how Randy Sult, an excavator, remembered his former teacher. “I never missed a day of school, and he never did either.”

   “He was one that, if he told you to do something, he expected you to do it, too,” added Leon Caldwell, a former student now at Blue Ridge Home Improvement. “If he was getting aggravated, you could tell,” Caldwell said. “He’d say, ‘You’re getting to me.’”

   “It means a lot to people to come out and at least do something,” said Poff, “because he’s done a lot for the community and done things for other people. So I’m sure people want to come out and do what they can.”