The scientific career of W.A. Fowler enduringly enriched astronomy by providing us with a systematic treatment of nuclear reaction rates in stars. I clarify how and why this achievement earned him both the 1979 Bruce Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the 1983 Nobel Prize in physics (jointly with S. Chandrasekhar). I attempt to share my understanding and experience of this great man, what he was like personally and the larger context of his life.