David Cowen ’75

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• 2018-06-11 09:52:15

  Jean Webb

  I am catching up on reading the Voice, so I just read of Dave Cowen's death. My condolences (as I know grief continues for a long time...) to his wife and children and to Kristin. I don't know anything about their life past Carleton, but my memory of Dave and Kristin when they were freshman on 2nd Myers (when I was a sophomore) is of good energy and friendliness. It is a pleasant memory!

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• 2025-02-24 09:52:44

  Chuck Palmer

  David Cowen, April 17, 2017

  I met Dave freshman year when I lived two doors down from him on 2nd Myers. He was a artistic wise guy with a New Jersey accent, and he and his Yooper roomie Karl Hansen were always playing some very loud rock n’ roll. Some of the songs I still associate with freshman year were blasted from their room. In the winter term he drew a picture of me ice skating in the hall outside my door. That year we worked together as food scrapers at Goodhue. Scrapers were the people who took the dishes after the meal and scraped the extra food off before placing them in the dishwasher racks. The unpleasantness of the job inspired Dave to make us each a bright fusia-dyed T-shirt, with the title “Goodhue Scrapers” on the front, with a drawing of a plate with a crossed knife and fork over the plate, and the words “We shovel the shit…” in fairly large letters underneath the plate. On the back it continued, in large letters: “…after you eat it!” We got away with wearing them at the Goodhue dining hall for a couple of weeks before the Saga dining hall manager Viola saw us and threatened to fire us if we ever wore them again. He and I were middle class kids raised by our mothers, and so we needed the jobs and had to retire them.
  Junior year he was the RA of the new rooms under Laird Stadium, and we shared a beautiful suite next to the handball courts, complete with bathroom, kitchenette, and a nice view of the Cannon River. Dave traced a Frank Stella protractor series work of art on a wall and painted it, and listened to Jethro Tull’s “Thick as a Brick” and the Allman Brothers, “Eat a Peach” albums what felt like most of the time. Dave was an Art History major, and we had a great party once using two slide projectors in the handball courts, scrolling through cool works of art projected on the walls. We also had 24 hour access to the sauna on the first level next to the track, which was a great feature, especially in the winter when you could roll in the snow.
  Senior year he and Kristin Boardman roomed together in the attic above 2nd floor Hall House, across the sidewalk from Musser, and they were always on the lookout for Assistant Dean Bill Svrluga who was interested in sniffing out the cohabitors. I was the house baker and made sourdough whole bread bread almost every week.
  Dave eventually became an architect in the Boston area, married Kristin, and had 3 daughters. I saw Dave at one reunion when he and Kristin were still married. I hired him in 2015 as an expert witness in a lawsuit by a postal worker injured by an unsafe home condition, and we got to hang out together for a couple of days and tour around Detroit. I found out in the spring of 2017 he was in Massachusetts General Hospital, dying of mesothelioma. Apparently he had done some renovation work decades before when he was a young architect, and been exposed to asbestos fibers, and now was paying the ultimate price. I flew out to Boston as soon as possible, running into Dave Jensen ’76 at the Boston airport, who was on the same mission. We did our best navigating the awful rush hour Boston traffic, but unfortunately Dave died before we got to the hospital. We did get to spend some time with his family, including his Kristen and his 3 beautiful daughters. Thanks for the memories, Dave. RIP.
  Chuck Palmer

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