GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - Friends say one of the three American hostages killed in the siege at a natural gas complex in Algeria was planning to retire soon to his family's cabin in a remote former gold-mining town in Eastern Oregon so he could spend more time hunting, fishing, snowmobiling and visiting family.
Longtime friends Toni Thompson and Myron Woodley in Sumpter said Tuesday that 58-year-old Gordon Lee Rowan had spent Christmas with his two sons in California, and then left Sumpter the first week in January to fly out of Boise, Idaho, for another monthlong shift at the gas field.
They say that Rowan was a petroleum engineer who felt safe working at the outpost in the Sahara and that he had been planning to retire soon, but decided to continue working to finish up a new project.
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