James Cowan

COWAN JAMES WILLIAM COWAN Dr. James William Cowan, age seventy-eight, passed away on Sunday, January 18, 2009 at Shady Grove Hospital, Gaithersburg, Maryland. Before retiring in July l996, Dr. Cowan was Director Emeritus and an Administrator of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges. Born in 1930 in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, into a small dairy farm family, Dr. Cowan was educated at Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pennsylvania, earning his Ph. D. in 1961 in Animal Nutrition. His specialty as a researcher was in diet and food sciences. His work on food composition tables was financed in part by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Cowan was appointed Dean of Agriculture in the late 1960‘s at the American University of Beirut, helping to educate a generation of young men and women in Nutrition in the Middle East. He also served as the Interim President of the American University of Beirut from 1975-1977. He subsequently returned to the United States and lived in Bethesda, Maryland and later, Rosslyn, Virginia. Survivors include two daughters, Julia Grace Cowan Smith and Janet Aileen Cowan Curran, of Bethesda, Maryland and Everett, Washington, respectively, and has four grandchildren. He is also missed by his former wife, Claire Clemons. Dr. Cowan was a Korean War veteran. Memorial Service planned for a later date.