Thursday, October 7, 2010

RPM Bowden, lifelong Episcopal churchman, dies at 80


I worked with RPM at convention-

RPM Bowden, a lifelong Episcopal churchman who served as a deputy to 10 General Conventions and two terms on the church's Executive Council, died Oct. 5 in Atlanta after an extended illness. He was 80.
Born Richard Perry Milas Bowden in San Antonio, Texas, he was known throughout the church simply as "RPM." He was the eldest of three sons born to an Episcopal priest, the Rev. Henry Bowden, and Minnie Lee Bowden of Atlanta. He was proud of saying that he first donned the vestments of an acolyte at the age of 2.

From Texas he moved in 1934 to North Carolina, where his father was rector of St. Mark's, Wilmington. Another call in 1946 took the family to Tuskegee, Alabama, and St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. As a 1950 graduate of Tuskegee Institute, Bowden came to Atlanta to teach at Booker T. Washington High School. He remained an educator and administrator for more than 40 years, teaching instrumental music and later focusing on community education. He was inducted in 2002 into the National Community Education Association Hall of Fame.

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81831_124997_ENG_HTM.htm

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