The Rt. Rev. David C. Bowman, Ninth Bishop of Western New York and Assisting Bishop of Ohio, died on July 10, 2015 in Cleveland, Ohio, at age 82, shortly following a stroke.
The Rt. Rev. David C. Bowman, Ninth Bishop of Western New York and Assisting Bishop of Ohio, died on July 10, 2015 in Cleveland, Ohio, at age 82, shortly following a stroke.
Born on November 15, 1932 in Oil City, PA, Bishop Bowman was raised in Canton, OH where he attended Canton Lincoln High school, and graduated from Ohio University in 1955. After serving three years in the U.S. Army, he attended the Virginia Theological Seminary, where he earned a Masters of Divinity in 1960. He was ordained to the diaconate in June and to the priesthood in December of that year.
From 1960 to 1963 he served as Assistant Rector at the Church of the Epiphany in Euclid, OH, where he met his wife, Nancy. He was then Vicar of St. Andrew’s in North Grafton, MA from 1963 to 1966; Rector of St. Andrew’s Church in Canfield, OH from 1967 to 1973; Rector of St. James’ Church, Painesville, OH from 1973 to 1980; and Rector of Trinity Church in Toledo, OH from 1980 to 1986, from where he was elected Bishop of Western New York.
Early in Bishop Bowman’s Episcopacy, the Diocese began a “Forward in Faith” capital campaign which raised more than four million dollars for the support of the Church at the local level, as well as providing resources to enable the mission of the Church at the diocesan and national levels.
While Bishop of Western New York, Bishop Bowman served on the Board of the Episcopal Church Home, a retirement community and Compass house, a home for Runaway youth. He was an active leader of the Buffalo Area Metropolitan Ministries and helped lead this agency to a merger with the Buffalo Area Council of Churches. Nationally, Bishop Bowman served on the Episcopal Churches Program Budget and Finance Committee for nine years. He represented that Committee on the Churches Audit Committee. He served as the Vice Chair of the House of Bishop’s Planning Committee and in this capacity assisted in the planning of an historic joint meeting with the Lutheran Conference of Bishops and the Episcopal House of Bishops. He served a term as a member of the General Board of Examining Chaplains.
Upon his retirement in 1999, the Bowmans moved to Shaker Heights, OH where he served for a year as Interim Dean of Trinity Cathedral, followed by a year as Interim Bishop of Central New York, while that diocese moved through the process to elect a new bishop. In 2003 he served a year as Assisting Bishop of Ohio, after which he was the interim Dean and President of Seabury Western Seminary in Evanston, IL. For the last ten years he has served actively as one of the Assisting Bishops of the Diocese of Ohio.
Bishop Bowman spent summers in Rangeley, ME, at the family’s lakeside camp, where he loved to sail, play tennis, and play the banjo and string bass.
He is survived by his wife, Nancy Lou Betts Bowman, whom he married in 1962, and their three children, Ann of Cleveland, OH, William (Georgine) of Cincinnati, OH, and Sarah Bowman Workman (Jason) of Cleveland, OH, as well as two granddaughters, Abigail Bowman and Lucy Workman, and his brother, Richard of Boulder, CO.
Burial service and reception will be held on Saturday, July 18, at 1 p.m., at Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid Ave, Cleveland (parking lot on Prospect Ave).
Memorial contributions may be made to Episcopal Relief and Development, P.O. Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058 (www.episcopalrelief.org), and the Church of the Good Shepherd, 2614 Main Street, Rangeley, ME 04970.
