Support UsLangston Bowen Endowed Scholarship
EST.2007
Langston Bowen was born in Chicago, Ill., in August 1932, one of eight children. When Mr. Bowen was 10, his family moved to Seattle. He graduated from the University of Washington in 1955 with a degree in Slavic languages and literature and moved with his twin brother, Laurence, to California.
Mr. Bowen initially settled in San Francisco, later moving to El Granada, Calif. He had a 31-year teaching career in K-12 education and was a self-taught artist whose murals can be seen at the Pacifica Public Library in Pacifica, Calif. In addition, Mr. Bowen was actively interested in the peace movement and participated in theater.
Mr. Bowen died on Nov. 21, 2006, a few days before he was scheduled to make a month-long visit to Kenya. During his visit, he had planned to serve as a mentor and art coach to teens orphaned by HIV/AIDS. In addition to his volunteer work, Mr. Bowen’s generosity and selflessness can also be seen in the planned gift he left to UW Medicine, a provision to support scholarships for African-American medical students at his alma mater.
Friends remember Mr. Bowen as intelligent, creative, compassionate, and kind — and with the creation of the Bowen Scholarship, generations of medical students will, too.