It is also with a heavy heart that we heard Dr. Robert David Cowan, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, passed away on Sunday, March 6, 2022, at the age of 86. He was born in Detroit on February 20, 1936, to Eugene C. Cowan and Lillian E. Cowan. Bob graduated from Cooley High School in Detroit in 1954. After two years at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, he transferred to the University of Michigan where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1958 and a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree in 1961.

In 1958, he met Margaret Helmer of Grand Rapids, Michigan, at Upper Peninsula Bible Camp where they were summer workers. They were married three years later at Eastern Avenue Gospel Chapel in Grand Rapids and left immediately for Washington, DC, for Bob’s one-year dental internship. Because of the draft, he was commissioned as an officer in the United States Air Force in 1962.

After tours in England and Limestone, Maine, Bob was able to complete post-graduate studies at the University of Texas in Houston and Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio, receiving his Master of Science degree in 1972. Future assignments were in Washington, D.C., Thailand, California, Texas and Florida, where he retired in 1987 as Colonel after serving for 25 years.

Desiring to stay active, he accepted the position as Director of the Advanced Education in General Dentistry Program here at UMKC. Respected by patients and colleagues as a gentleman of the highest order, Dr. Cowan was first and foremost a clinician.  If you needed to locate him, you could be assured he was chairside with the residents, never leaving for the day until the last patient was completed.  Bob served in this position from 1987 until his retirement in September 1999.

During this time, he was awarded tenure, received a sizeable grant to expand the AEGD program, and was honored with the Elmer F Pierson Award for excellence in teaching. Upon his retirement, Dr. Cowan was acknowledged by his peers with an appointment as Associate Professor Emeritus.

In 2000, Bob and Margaret moved to the Chicago area to be near their daughter and son-in-law and two granddaughters, all of whom he loved dearly. Bob was a loving husband, father and grandfather. He is survived by his wife, Margaret, his daughter and son-in-law, Marilyn and Eric Enstrom, his granddaughter and grandson-in-law, Alicia and Grant Coulson, and granddaughter Nicole Enstrom.