Clarence Bowman
Born: 1920 in Cleveland, Ohio
Died: December 2, 2010 in Normal, Illinois
Family: Wife, Charlotte (died 2009). Children: Ed and Al. Four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Athletic highlights
Two-time Class B 880-yard state champ. He is the only Lorain County boy to ever win a state title for this event twice. In winning the 1939 championship, he ran a 2:02.0 on a cinder track. Bowman ran 2:03.8 to take the state crown as a junior.
6-time All-Ohio track and field athlete: twice in the 880-yard run and four times as a member of the mile relay (4th, 1939; 3rd, 1937-38; 2nd, 1936)
The Indians won the 1936 Class B state championship his freshman year, second in ’39 and third in both ’37 and ’38. His senior year coincided with the end of a remarkable 15-year run by the Oberlin High track program. Ten times, the team placed in the top 10 between 1925 and 1939.
Bowman played varsity basketball for two years for the Gordon College Fighting Scots.
Professional highlights
Bowman was a long-time senior pastor and faculty member of several bible colleges from North Carolina to Colorado in a career spanning 49 years. Following his marriage to Charlotte, they lived in Boston, MA, Mansfield, Ohio, Lake Lure, NC, Charleston, WV, and Colorado Springs, CO. In North Carolina, he joined the faculty of Mullen Bible Training School, an institution affiliated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church. At Church of the Nazarene seminaries in West Virginia and Colorado, Bowman also served as a faculty member. His career included service as the senior pastor at several churches, including St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Lake Lure, NC and West Side Church of the Nazarene in Charleston, WV. Bowman closed out his academic career at Nazarene Bible College in Colorado Springs retiring in 1993.
Education
1939: Oberlin High School
1944: Gordon College