The Rt. Rev. David C. Bowman, Bishop of Western New York for 11 years and a U.S. Army veteran, died peacefully at home July 10. He was 82.
Born in Oil City, Pennsylvania, Bowman was an alumnus of Ohio University and Virginia Theological Seminary. He was ordained deacon and priest in 1960.
He served in the Army from 1955 to 1957 and was stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Bowman served several congregations in Ohio before his election as bishop coadjutor in 1986. He was the diocese’s bishop from 1987 to 1998.
After retiring from Western New York to served as interim dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland from January 1999 to February 2000. He later served as an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Ohio.
While Bishop of Western New York, Bishop Bowman served on the board of the Episcopal Church Home, a retirement community, and Compass House, a home for runaway youth. He was an active leader of the Buffalo Area Metropolitan Ministries and helped lead it into a merger with the Buffalo Area Council of Churches.
The bishop is survived by his wife, Nancy Lou Betts Bowman, whom he married in 1962; , daughters children, Ann Bowman and Sarah Bowman Workman, both of Cleveland; son William Bowman of Cincinnati; two granddaughters, and a brother, Richard Bowman of Boulder, Colorado.
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
