James BOWEN

Sorry that I have just caught up with this. I spent a marvellous summer in 1973 as his student at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Toronto. He was indeed a wonderful teacher and a great person. I was just moving into the area of the History of Education, and no one could have been better as a mentor.

I lament his passing but know that his family will have received a lasting legacy from the way he conducted himself in his work and his life.

James (Jim) Bowen was a complex, multi-faceted man who was much more than a working class lad from of the Depression and War Years Sydney who made good. Clearly he was an extremely gifted man, an artist who loved nothing more than to dabble in water colours and create cartoons for every occasion; a world recognised scholar in the fields of the History of Ideas, particularly in Education and the Marine and Coral Reef Sciences; and perhaps his greatest legacy, a gifted teacher who loved to...

James (Jim) Bowen was a remarkable and multi-talented man.
A child of the Great Depression with a father who served in WW2, Jim had a difficult childhood but was determined to rise above it and did so admirably.
Despite the tough times, Jim gained access to the selective Sydney Boys High School along with contemporaries including Richard Bonynge (husband of Dame Joan Sutherland) and Norman “Nugget” May (ABC sports commentator).
After graduating from Teachers College, Jim taught in...