It is with deep regret that the family of Jack Walter Bowman reports his passing on December 19, 2024. Jack was born February 27, 1945, in Ohio and spent his formative years in East Palestine and Delaware, Ohio. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in musical arts from Ohio Wesleyan University and then attended the University of Michigan, where he completed a master’s degree in woodwind performance and a doctorate in musical arts. Throughout his 60-year musical career, Dr. Bowman held positions at universities and churches in Michigan, Oklahoma, Illinois, South Carolina, Minnesota, Connecticut and Istanbul, Turkey. He also conducted orchestras and choral ensembles in Hungary, Austria, Russia, France, Italy, the Bahamas, Turkey and Germany. Jack’s final musical pursuits took him to Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, where he was the director of music at the First Presbyterian Church Pauls Valley and the artistic director at the Garvin County Choral Society & Sinfonietta. Always searching for the next musical production, his final years were spent enriching central Oklahoma with performances of “Oklahoma!,” the “Nutcracker,” and the “Marriage of Figaro.”
Dr. Bowman’s motto was “dream big.” An Eagle Scout and lifelong musical educator, his true passions included building and conducting musical orchestras and choral ensembles, collaborating with ballet corps, playing the organ, the piano and any woodwind instrument available.
Jack is survived by his brother, James (Pia) Bowman, and his sister, Jane Bowman, all of the Columbus, Ohio area; his son and daughter-in-law, Jeffrey and Lori Bowman, of Oklahoma City; and his daughter and son-in-law, Ben and Kathleen Moran, of Franklin, Tennessee. Jack had five grandchildren, Henry and Kate Bowman and Avery, Lincoln and Clark Moran. He was preceded in death by his parents, Dale Bowman and Elizabeth Clark Bowman.
A memorial service will be held at Mayflower Congregational UCC in Oklahoma City on February 15, 2025. The service begins at 3 p.m. If you wish to honor Dr. Bowman’s musical legacy, please consider donating to the Garvin County Choral Society and Sinfonietta (GarvinCountySings.com) or the First Presbyterian Church Pauls Valley (fpcpvok.com).
