It is with great sadness that we have learned of the sudden death of Henry Woods Bowman. "Woody" was a retired faculty member from the School of Public Service of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. He was also a member of the steering committee of the DePaul Emeritus Society. He was killed in a car accident in southwest Michigan on July 10th.
Before coming to DePaul Woody served in Illinois State government and Cook County government. Crain's Business has just posted this appreciation of his public career.http://www.chicagobusiness.
Details on a university memorial service will be forthcoming.
Our deepest sympathies to Woody's wife Michele and their family at this time of tragic loss.
Thank you.
Source: Mission and Values, email, July 13, 2015
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Crain's article, July 13, 2015, Greg Hinz on Politics:
Former Cook County CFO Woody Bowman dies in car crash
One of the better guys ever to serve in local government has passed on.
Former state lawmaker and Cook County CFO Henry Woods Bowman, better known as "Woody," was killed in a car crash July 10 in southwest Michigan.
Bowman, 74, and his wife, Michaelle Bowman, were driving east on I-94 near Mattawan when they had to slow down because of a brush fire. After they slowed, Bowman's car was rear-ended by a semi-truck trailer, which pushed the Bowmans' vehicle into another before caroming into another line and hitting another semi, according to Michigan State Police spokesman Dale Hinz (no relation). Bowman was pronounced dead at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo, Mich. His widow is being treated there.
Bowman, a liberal Democrat, came out of the 49th Ward, one of a group of reformers that included Ald. David Orr. They challenged the latter days of the rule of Mayor Richard J. Daley and his successor, Michael Bilandic.
Bowman spent more than a decade in Springfield, serving as chairman of one of the two appropriations committees, before running for state comptroller against another reformer, Dawn Clark Netsch. He lost but became budget director during the tenure of Richard Phelan as Cook County Board president. Bowman became a professor in the School of Public Service at DePaul University before retiring a couple of years ago.
I always found Bowman not only smart in both an academic and worldly sense, but as honest as they come.
"He served with great distinction," said Steve Brown, spokesman for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. "He brought a lot of common sense" to Springfield's budget battles.
R.I.P., Woody.
Source: Crain's Chicago Business, July 13, 2015, online at: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20150713/BLOGS02/150719961/former-cook-county-cfo-woody-bowman-dies-in-car-crash
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H. Woods "Woody" Bowman, a former state representative, Cook County finance chief and college professor, was killed Saturday in a car crash in southwest Michigan.
Bowman, 73, and his wife, Michele Thompson, were driving on Interstate 94 near Mattawan when a semi truck rear-ended the couple's Cadillac around 1:30 p.m. Friday, according to local fire officials. The truck driver might have been distracted by the sight of fire crews extinguishing a grass fire in the highway median, official said.
"Apparently he was looking at the fire or the units clearing the fire and didn't see the car in front of him," said Mattawan Fire Department Lt. Kenneth King.
Thompson was transported to a local hospital in critical condition, King said.
Bowman, professor emeritus with DePaul University's School of Public Service, was Cook County's chief financial officer under former County Board President Richard Phelan in the early 1990s.
"Even after he left that position, he remained committed to Cook County, serving most recently as a member of my task force on unincorporated areas," said County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.
Bob Stokes, director of DePaul's School of Public Service, said Bowman recently had received some contract work to study financial sustainability of cultural organizations in the U.S., the reason for his trip to Detroit.
Stokes said such a project was a perfect fit for Bowman, a resident of downtown Chicago and regular visitor to the city's museums, theatres and other civic institutions. "He found a way to marry his two passions: high culture and financial management," Stokes said.
He then came to Chicago, working as a research economist for the Federal Reserve Bank then teaching economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago through the 1970s.
In 1976, Bowman was elected to the Illinois House. He held his seat until 1990 and headed the House Appropriations Committee for seven years. Bowman was Cook County's chief financial officer from 1991 to 1994.
"The thing the people in the independent movement remember him for is that he always stayed true to the independent principles," said Dick Simpson, political science professor at UIC. "And because he was an economics professor, he was one of the few to really understand the budget issues."
Bowman returned to academia in 1995, becoming an assistant professor at DePaul. Stokes called him a generous instructor and colleague.
"I remember reading (his resume) the first time and my jaw dropped," Stokes said. "I was like, 'Wow, what a gift to have him here to talk to every day.' His door was always open. He would always read your work. He would always give you notes to make your work better, and he never said no."
Simpson said he was supposed to meet with Bowman and his wife Monday. The couple had planned to ship several boxes of books to Sierra Leone as part of Simpson's program to help replace books lost during the country's civil war.
"It is a clear tragedy," said Simpson, who added that Bowman and his wife "were looking forward to this next phase of their joint retirement, staying active, looking forward to times when they might explore other things."
Information on funeral arrangements and other surviving family members was not immediately available.
Source: Chicago Tribune's Rosemary Regina Sobol contributed. July 13, 2015
