Robert Bowie, Founder of Harvard's Weatherhead Center, Dies at 104

Emeritus professor and founding director of Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs Robert R. Bowie passed away early last month at the age of 104. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Bowie served as a foreign policy adviser under four separate presidential administrations over the course of his career.

Current executive director of the Weatherhead Center Steven B. Bloomfield credited Bowie with establishing “a sense of community and scholarly purpose” during his time as director. Bloomfield went on to describe the Center as a “strong and capable research center, owing greatly to [Bowie’s] steady guidance for many years.”

Bowie was appointed director of the newly-created center in 1957 after serving for four years as the head of the State Department Policy Planning Staff for then-U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

During his time at the helm of the Weatherhead Center, Bowie presided over a number of distinguished foreign policy staff, including former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and former Dean of the Kennedy School Edward S. Mason. Bowie also developed a program to bring government officials from around the world to study foreign policy at Harvard for a year.

He remained director for fifteen years and continued to teach international policy at Harvard as the Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs until retiring in 1980.

Bowie is survived by his two sons, Robert R. Bowie Jr. of Monkton, Maryland and William Chapman of Springfield, Massachusetts, and three grandchildren—Alice, Robert and Peter.

Besides his professional achievements, Bowie is also remembered for his compassion and care for others.

Bowie Jr. described his father as having a “deep moral sense” and a “complete commitment to trying to do the right thing both personally and professionally.”

According to Bowie Jr., when his mother, Mary, developed dementia towards the end of her life and was living in an assisted living facility, his father would visit at least two or three times a week and bring her flowers.

To look after Mary, Bowie would write out 3x5 note cards detailing the minimum caloric intake she needed each day and spend lunch with her, making certain she ate no matter how long it took. Bowie Jr. remembered walking into the dining hall of the assisted living facility and seeing only two people remaining: his mother and father.

When asked what he missed most about his father, Bowie Jr. recalled reading New York Times articles with him during the almost daily visits to his father’s assisted living facility for the last ten years of his life.

Bowie graduated from Princeton University in 1931 before going on to earn his law degree at Harvard in 1934. Upon graduation, Bowie returned to Maryland to practice law as an assistant attorney general before enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1942. Four years later, Bowie returned to his alma mater to teach corporate and antitrust law at HLS.

Besides his teaching appointments, Bowie also served as legal adviser to US High Commissioner for Germany John McCloy from 1950 to 1951, counselor to Secretary of State Dean Rusk from 1966 to 1968, and Chief National Intelligence Officer of the CIA from 1977 to 1979.

In 2009, on his 100th birthday, Bowie was awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Bowie was recognized for his work towards a united Europe through French and German reconciliation.

During his lifetime, he was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the American Law Institute and the American Academy of Diplomacy.

A service for family and friends will be held at Old Wye Church in Wye Mills, Md. on December 7 at 11 am.  The Weatherhead Center also plans to hold a memorial gathering in the spring.