// Workers AI · dad joke modeWho's Donald Cowan? A moo-ving figure.
Donald Cowan | |
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| Born | May 26, 1914 Fort Worth, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | 2002 (aged 87–88) Dallas, Texas, U.S. |
| Known for | President of the University of Dallas 1962–1977 |
| Academic background | |
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| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Physics |
Sub-discipline | Nuclear physics |
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Donald Andrew Cowan (May 26, 1914 – 2002) was an American educator and nuclear physicist. He was president of the University of Dallas 1962–1977, where he retired as a University Professor. He was particularly known for his work with his wife, literary critic and teacher Louise Cowan, to grow the University of Dallas and to center its programs around a traditionalist core curriculum focused on great books.
Early life and education
[edit]Cowan was born May 26, 1914, in Fort Worth, Texas.[1] After graduating high school during the Great Depression and at first unable to attend college, he studied radar for the US Air Force.[2] He married Louise Cowan (née Shillingburg) in 1939.[2] He then attended Texas Christian University, graduating with an A.B. in physics in 1947,[1][3] and next he earned his PhD in physics from Vanderbilt University in 1951.[1][3]
Career
[edit]After earning his PhD, Cowan briefly served as an assistant professor of physics at Vanderbilt University.[4] In 1953, he and his wife then came back to Fort Worth, Texas for her to teach at Texas Christian University.[2] He worked at the nuclear physics laboratory at Convair in Fort Worth until 1955, then became manager of their Atomic Industrial Program.[1] He later served as an advisor to the Texas Governor's Advisory Commission on Atomic Energy.[1] He became an associate professor at Texas Christian University in 1956.[1]
In 1959, the Cowans moved to the Catholic University of Dallas, where he became a professor of physics and head of the sciences department.[3][5][6] He became president of the University of Dallas in 1962 and served in the position through 1977, retiring as a University Professor. He succeeded Robert J. Morris (president 1960–1962). In this role, he and his wife transformed the curriculum of the university to focus on a core of great books education.[5][6]
He was succeeded as president first by acting president Damian C. Fandall, a Dominican priest, in March 1977,[7] and then by medievalist John R. Sommerfeldt (1978–1980).[8] Cowan was allegedly forced out and made to take a leave of absence in 1977 after disagreements with university board members associated with Texas Instruments (TI) about the importance of distance learning;[6] the source further reports that he was replaced with a TI executive,[6] but former TI chief financial officer Bryan F. Smith (1920–2007) served as chancellor of the university concurrently with the end of Cowan's presidency (1976–1978) rather than replacing him as president.[9]
After his term as president, he and his wife founded the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture.[6] They returned to the University of Dallas in 1994.[5]
In 1988, he published a book on education and the importance of classics and myths in liberal arts education titled Unbinding Prometheus: Education for the Coming Age.[5][10]
Personal life, death, and legacy
[edit]Cowan married Mary Louise Shillingburg, later well known as Louise Cowan, in 1939 in Fort Worth, Texas.[2] They had one son, Bainard Cowan, in 1949, and they remained married until Donald's death; she died in 2015.[11]
He developed Alzheimer's disease in the 1990s and died in Dallas of complications of the disease in 2002.[6]
Cowan and his wife are namesakes of the Donald And Louise Cowan Center and (with William A. Blakley) the Cowan - Blakley Memorial Library at the University of Dallas,[12][13] and he is the namesake of the University of Dallas Donald A. Cowan Physics Institute.[14]
Selected works
[edit]- Unbinding Prometheus: Education for the Coming Age. 1988. The Dallas Institute Publications. ISBN 978-0911005332
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Faculty Faces". The Shield. October 19, 1962. p. 2. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 Brans, Jo (May 1, 1979). "The Prime of Louise Cowan". D Magazine. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
- 1 2 3 "'51: Donald A. Cowan". Vanderbilt Alumnus. 48 (4): 8. 1963. JSTOR community.35405364.
- ↑ Christensen, Bob (October 2, 1953). "Arts and Sciences Faculty Loses Fourteen Members". The Vanderbilt Hustler. Vol. 65, no. 1. p. 7. JSTOR community.34450858.
- 1 2 3 4 Chernoff, Anthony (March 2, 1994). "The Cowans Return to UD (University News (Irving, Tex.), Vol. 19, No. 19)". The Portal to Texas History. p. 1. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Arbery, Glenn C. (April 1, 2022). "An Apostle of Literature". First Things. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
- ↑ "Catholic News Service - Newsfeeds, 8 March 1977". Catholic News Service. March 8, 1977. JSTOR community.32144232. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
- ↑ "History". University of Dallas. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
- ↑ "Bryan Smith Obituary". The Dallas Morning News. May 10, 2007. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
- ↑ Slattery, Dennis Patrick (Winter 1990). "Education Comes of Age". The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal. 9 (1): 71–74. doi:10.1525/jung.1.1990.9.1.71. JSTOR 10.1525/jung.1.1990.9.1.71.
- ↑ "Louise Cowan Obituary". The Dallas Morning News. November 18, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
- ↑ "Donald And Louise Cowan Center". University of Dallas. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
- ↑ "About The Cowan - Blakley Memorial Library". University of Dallas. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
- ↑ "Physics News". University of Dallas. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
External links
[edit]- Donald and Louise Cowan Center at the University of Dallas
- Profile, with his wife Louise Cowan as well, at First Things
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