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Giant Footsteps
By Nathan Weinert
Editor-in-Chief, The Hilltop Monitor
A pioneering figure for women, an innovative professor and a giant in the history
of William Jewell College, Dr. Georgia Bowman, '34, professor emerita of communication,
died Sunday, December 2. She was 93.
As members of the College community reflect on Bowman's life, they are remembering her as a figure of towering intellect who challenged and motivated generations of students and created paths for others to follow.
"I think there's a great deal to honor about her life and everything she accomplished. Certainly, our department owes her a great deal of gratitude for laying the foundation of this department," Dr. Gina Lane, professor of communication, chairwoman of the department of communication and director of debate, said.
During her time on faculty, Bowman founded the department of speech and theatre
- which would become the department of communication - as a separate entity from
the department of English. "All of the things that we do or did do she started.
She started the department of communication and was its chair. She was the director
of the forensics program, she was adviser to The Student newspaper and she started
the campus radio station, all at the same time. I think back upon that, and I
think that was just incredible, that she was able to do all of those things,
and to do them as a woman at that time in history is just outstanding."
Bowman was a pioneer for women at William Jewell and in debate and forensics. "My observation of her life was that she just kept breaking down the barriers for women in this particular field. I just find a great deal to honor about that," Lane said. At the time that Bowman competed in debate, the ratio of students at William Jewell was 2:1 male to female, and debate was separated into male and female divisions. Bowman was invited back to William Jewell to become the director of debate and forensics in 1947. "That's just a testament to her leadership ability and her brilliance and her intellect, that a woman would be considered for such a post," Lane said.
Aloah Kincaid, '58, said that Bowman would have disagreed with those who considered
her a pioneer for women.
"I'm certain she did not think of herself as a woman professor. She thought of
herself as a professor. She did not think of herself as groundbreaking—she thought
of herself as someone who knew how to do a job and did it," Kincaid said. "She
expected us to do well because she did well and she had high standards for herself,
and she really taught by example, so to that extent she set a standard of excellence
for the College that was consistent, whether she was teaching Latin or coaching
debate—she was absolutely insistent in her insistence on scholarship, and that
is what a College is about."
Bowman was born May 20, 1914 in Bonne Terre, Mo., to John J. and Betty Hill Bowman. Born into a family of educators (her mother was a teacher of Latin, Greek, French and German at the Liberty Ladies' College from 1898 to 1905), Bowman graduated from Bonne Terre public schools as the valedictorian of her high school class.
Bowman graduated from William Jewell as valedictorian in 1934, with a bachelor of arts in Latin and English. She also earned a bachelor's of journalism from the University of Missouri, a master of arts in radio from the University of Iowa, and a doctor of philosophy from the University of Iowa in 1956 in public address and history. While at the University of Iowa, she studied with Dr. A. Craig Baird, one of the nation's leading authorities on debate and rhetoric at the time.
Before returning to William Jewell to coach debate at the invitation of College debate coach and Professor P. Casper Harvey, Bowman taught at Liberty High School, Hannibal High School, Brooklyn College, and held a teaching fellowship at the University of Iowa. Bowman was hired by the University of Missouri to establish a campus radio station, but the effort failed as a result of the high cost of steel. Bowman would teach at William Jewell from 1947 until her retirement in 1979.
During her career, Bowman was the recipient of numerous awards. In 1945, she received the College's Citation for Achievement, and in 1987 was inducted into the Faculty Hall of Fame. That same year, she became a charter member of the Pi Kappa Delta Hall of Fame.
"She meant what she said. She always had a way of making her point. Sometimes, some would view it as rather harsh, other times it was viewed as the words were sent with a smile," Dr. Tom Willett, professor emeritus of communication, said. "She just had a way about her of communicating. And here she was, this little petite lady that had dynamite in each fist and the brain, who was extraordinarily bright."
"She was a very, very bright person," Willett said, noting her command
of Latin, French and German and how Bowman had come out of retirement to teach
Latin at the College in 1981 after the College's Latin teacher was killed in
the Kansas City Hyatt disaster. "She could just really bring a lot of things
to the discipline of speech education. She was so well versed in so many subjects.
I felt it an honor to work with her for many years."
"I only knew Dr. Bowman for the last seven years of her life, but to hear people talk I think she was very challenging, pressed people to be the best that they could be, set very high standards," Dr. David Sallee, president of the College, said. "I've heard from several people in the last few days who really look back on her experience with her as a very formative experience, that while when they were in school they didn't see it that way, but they look back years later and say that their experience with her was one of the most valuable that they had."
Former students remembered Bowman as a demanding professor, with little tolerance
for demagoguery.
"She was not big into bulls**t. She was big into getting it right and getting
the research," Kincaid said. Kincaid noted that Bowman was not impressed easily,
and told the story of the ride home from the national debate tournament the year
that Kincaid and Ann (Faubion) Powell won the national debate tournament. "Ann
and I won nationals, and we had driven, and she told us to get in the back seat
because ‘these boys have longer legs.' She didn't care if we had won nationals
or become astronauts—it was all the same."
"She was a remarkably strong woman. She had quite an aura on campus as a strong determined woman," George Flanagan, '70 said. "She was kind of the consummate professional when it came to communication in the educational setting." Flanagan, who also served as a visiting assistant professor and debate coach from 1973 – 76, said that Bowman's national reputation helped raise the profile of William Jewell debate. "In debate, we were very proud of her as our coach because we knew how much she was admired. She had a broad national reputation. People respected and admired her, and we kind of enjoyed riding along on that."
"On debate trips, she got very enthusiastic about everything," Flanagan said, telling the story of a cheer that the team did before the tournaments. "Her saying was the old speech saying ‘Tell ‘em you're going to tell them, tell them, tell them again, tell them you told them, and above all, gang, give them hell.' That was the cheer she taught us all as we went into our first tournament each year."
Bowman was a founding member of Beta Sigma Omicron sorority, which would become Zeta Tau Alpha. According to Juarenne Hester, '55, Bowman had a special relationship with members of the sorority.
"Dr. Bowman was an outstanding teacher, a wonderfully intelligent and talented woman. To me, she was special because she was a member of the Beta Sig sorority, and I was a member of the Beta Sig sorority," Hester said. "When I was in school she was our model and example in the sorority, and she was always the one we looked up to whether we had her in class or not. We had that association with her and she was wonderful." Hester said that this association with the sorority has led members of Beta Sigma Omicron to try to raise the funds necessary to name the social room in the Zeta Tau Alpha wing of the new sorority complex after Bowman.
"We loved her, and she loved us, and she taught us, and we've loved her always," Kincaid said. "She was our friend and she liked us all, and she was a blessing."
Services were at 2 p.m. Dec. 7, 2007 at Second Baptist Church. Interment was at Fairview Cemetery.
This article originally appeared in the Dec. 7, 2007 issue of The Hilltop Monitor.
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