Dr. Ronald R. Cowden

PROFESSOR DR. RONALD REED COWDEN, Count von Eigen, Professor Emeritus Biophysics, James H. Quillen-Dischner College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, cell biologist, embryologist, renowned in fluorescence cytochemistry, academician, marine biologist, and scientific journalist, died March 17, 2006 in Mobile, Alabama (USA). He was 74.

Dr. Cowden was most renowned for his work in fluorescence cytochemistry, at one time considered one of the three experts in the world (along with Dr. Richard Horobin of Scotland and a pioneer in Spain). He was also noted for his research of marine invertebrate embryos, and in the quantitative cytochemistry of nuclei. Dr. Cowden had been instrumental in the establishment of the James H. Quillen School of Medicine at East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, he attended Monroe, Louisiana, public schools, graduating from Neville High School in 1948. After a year at the University of Mississippi studying Biology and German, and a semester at the University of New Mexico, he was graduated in 1953 from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana(USA), with a B.S. in Zoology and German. Dr. Cowden received his Ph.D. from the University of Vienna, Austria, in 1956 with a major in Zoology (Dissertation work at Institut für Allgemeine Biologie der Medizinische Fakutat, F. M. Mainx, Director) and a minor in Anthropology. While studying in Europe, he was invited for a summer of research at the Karolinska Institutet (Sweden).Returning to the United States he completed his Postdoctoral work in the Biology Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as a USPH Post Doctoral Fellow (where Dr. Alan D. Conger was his mentor). Dr. Cowden spent his career pursuing his passion for researching and teaching biological and medical sciences at colleges and universities throughout the United States, with sabbaticals in Germany, Italy at the University of Pavia, France and South Africa. His early career began with a position as Assistant Professor of Biology at The Johns Hopkins University in 1957-60, followed by a term as an Assistant Member of the Cell Biology team, Institute of Muscular Disease, NYC, in 1960-61. He then served as an Assistant Professor of Pathology at the University of Florida, Gainesville, in the JH Midler Health Center, in 1962-66, and later as an Associate Professor of Anatomy at LSU Medical Center, New Orleans, LA, 1966-68.

As he began his first full professorship and Chairmanship of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Denver, where he served from 1968 to 1972, the Denver Post reported Dr. Cowden stated he set as his goal to lead his department of sciences into "achieving International relevance" by building "a research oriented faculty", a goal he kept repeating. In 1972-75, he served as Professor and Chairman of Anatomy at Albany (N.Y.) Medical College.

In 1975, he became Associate Dean of the basic sciences at the proposed College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University. As a member of the original organizing team, he formed and shaped the sciences basic to the practice of the healing arts: Biochemistry, Anatomy, Physiology, Microbiology and Pharmacology. Dr. Cowden developed the programs instrumental to the Medical School receiving the largest grant awarded by the VA for Basic Science Development at the East Tennessee State University and the College of Medicine. He was the initial research investigator in the Graduate Programs of the Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Cowden and Ian Smith, M.D. (Professor Emeritus Iowa State University) recruited a faculty of distinguished medical and clinical scientists to form a school that is ranked by US NEWS and WORLD REPORT( 2005) as third in the nation in the teaching of generalized medicine. His international reputation and administrative skills had been critical to establishing the school's present position as "one of the best schools in the country for the training of primary care physicians." Dr. Cowden retired in 1986 as Professor Emeritus of biophysics, Department of Cellular Biophysics, the new Medical Department he had established in l980.

At the time of his death, Dr. Cowden was working to establish his own Coastal Biomedical Research Laboratory in Mobile, Alabama (USA). Dr. Cowden was a Trustee for The Bermuda Biological Station in St. Georges, Bermuda for 11 years. When he was invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society, in 1966, only two other Americans were members, both much older than he. He was a recipient of a USPHS Career Development Award (1962-66).

A prolific scientific author, he contributed over 120 articles to professional journals throughout the world. His experience on the editorial boards of eleven international scientific journals, often as an Editor, included: Histochemical Journal (London), Associate Editor, 1968-74; Journal of Experimental Zoology, 1969-73, 78-82; Transactions of the American Microscopical Society, 1971-95; The Journal of Morphology, 1972-; Histochemistry (Berlin),1976-86; Acta Embryologia et Morphologiae Experimentalis, Nova Seria (Palermo), 1978-93; European Journal of Histochemistry, 1984-; Aspects of Sponge Biology, co-editor, 1976; Devel. Biology of Freshwater Invertebrates, 1982; and, Advances in Microscopy, 1984.

Dr. Cowden was listed in Who's Who in Medicine and Health Care. He was a member of Sigma Xi, the Histochemical Society of North America (Program chair 1981-84),Tri Beta Science Fraternity (inducted into membership as a sophomore at LSU), the Royal Microscopial Society (Fellow), American Association Zoologists, American Society of Cell Biology, La Asociacion Panamericana de Anatomia, American Association of Anatomists, Society for Invertebrate Pathology, Association of Southeastern Biologists, Society of Western Naturalists and the Society for Developmental Biology.

Dr. Cowden served his country as a member of the Special Detail for the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1950s and 1960s. Friends in the world knew him as quite knowledgeable and most enthusiastic for opera. He had turned practice pages in Vienna for students who later became Metropolitan stars and he once conducted the Vienna Orchestra in a practice session, substituting for an ill conductor. His other interests included tracking wild game, camping, canoeing, and football.

As his good friend and colleague Robert Rasch, M.D., Ph.D., said, "He was a beloved colleague who always had a story or joke to share with others. His brilliance in creative ideas for research, phenomenal memory for scientific citations and willingness to undertake daunting challenges will be sorely missed. "His mind, like his interests, had no boundaries."

Professor Doctor Cowden was preceded in death by his first wife, Beverly Marie Louise Sherwood of New Orleans, Louisiana. He is survived by his wife, Ann Tiffin Hays Greer Cowden, and her daughter, Vidmer Greer Flynn (Mrs. P. Robbins) and her grandchildren, Miss Vidmer Tiffin Greer, William Sanford Greer III and Mac Barton Greer II. A Memorial service was held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church on Monday, March 20, 2006, and interment was in the Old Spring Hill Cemetery, Mobile, Alabama.

-- Ann Cowden

January 30th, 2007