Doc

Otis R. Bowen

Description

The autobiography of Otis R. Bowen, Indiana's most popular and best-known Governor of this century

"Being governor is like no other job although it has similarities to being a country doctor. Like a physician, a governor is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, asleep, awake, eating, in the shower, traveling in a car, or at a meeting. There are emergencies, so he lives with unpredictability. As earlier noted, many state government activities involve health and medical questions, areas in which I have expertise. There, the similarities end. There is nothing like being governor, not even being a member of a president's Cabinet."—from Doc

No Indiana governor in the 20th century has been more popular or successful than Otis R. Bowen. In his long-awaited autobiography, "Doc" writes in rich detail about the hard work and persistence that got him into and through medical school. His commitment to serving people made him a beloved family physician in Bremen, a respected state legislator and legislative leader, and one of the most esteemed governors in Indiana history.

Otis Bowen grew up poor in Fulton County, but was rich in the things that matter. With the support of his parents, siblings, teachers and friends, he pursued a dream of becoming a family physician, making many sacrifices to finance his way through medical school

As a newly minted doctor, Bowen first practiced medicine in the Army. He describes his experience on the field of combat in the Pacific during the last major battle of World War II, and tells of his life after coming home from the war to serve the medical needs of a small northern Indiana community. We learn, too, of his personal life, about his own family and his first two wives, Beth Bowen and Rose Bowen, the loneliness and emptiness he endured after they died painfully of cancer, and how his third wife, Carol, has filled that void.

An almost accidental entry into politics and public life led Bowen to the capitals of Indiana and the nation. Drafted as a candidate for Marshall County coroner in 1952, Bowen moved up from that office to become a member of the Indiana House of Representatives, to House leadership as Minority Leader and Speaker, to the governor's office in 1973, and to President Ronald Reagan's cabinet in 1985. The first person to serve eight consecutive years as Indiana's Governor, Bowen candidly explores the challenges, crises and triumphs of that period. In an equally candid way, he recounts his efforts and frustrations as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

As warm, down-to-earth, and genuine as its subject, Doc will be welcomed by all Hoosiers, no matter their political stripe.

Table of Contents: [to come]

Sujets

• Political
• Lettres et linguistique
• Biography
• Politics
• Autobiography
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 22 septembre 2000
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253028556
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Doc  
Doc
Memories from a Life in Public Service
OTIS R. BOWEN, M.D. with William Du Bois, Jr.
Indiana University Press
BLOOMINGTON & INDIANAPOLIS
This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA
http://www.indiana.edu/~iupress
Telephone orders     800-842-6796 Fax orders     812-855-7931 Orders by e-mail     [e-mail]
© 2000 by Otis R. Bowen
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bowen, Otis R. Doc : memories from a life in public service / Otis R. Bowen; with William Du Bois, Jr. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0-253-33767-4 (alk. paper) 1. Bowen, Otis R. 2. Politicians—Indiana—Biography. 3. Governors—Indiana—Biography. 4. Physicians—Indiana—Biography. 5. Indiana—Politics and government—20th century. 6. Cabinet officers—United States—Biography. I. Du Bois, William. II. Title.
F530.22.B68 B69 2000 977.2-043-092-dc21
[B]
00-024321
1  2  3  4  5  05  04  03  02  01  00
This book is dedicated to my own family and to my working families in Indiana state government and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Each of my families occupies a special niche in my heart.
ORB
Contents
PREFACE
1   Family, Friends, and School
2   IU, Medical School, and Beth
3   Internship in South Bend
4   Serving Uncle Sam
5   Family Doctor in Bremen
6   First Public Service: Coroner
7   Winning (and Losing) Elections
8   Doctor in the House
9   Leader of the House
10   First Campaigns for Governor
11   First Steps and Property Tax Relief
12   Budgets, Surpluses, and Other Challenges
13   Managing for Results
14   A Defeat, a Disappointment, and Tribulations
15   Folks Who Made a Difference
16   On Being Governor
17   The Governor as Party Leader
18   Last Days in Office
19   Medical School Professor
20   Secretary of Health & Human Services
21   Beth, Rose, and Carol
22   Presidents and People I’ve Known
23   Final Thoughts
INDEX
Preface
Lurking in the back of my mind, I’ve had thoughts about writing my memoirs. However, I’ve been busy being retired. I’m also a bit wary of the idea, because I’m not certain that my life merits such treatment. Realizing how unusual it is for a physician to be involved in politics, government, and non-medical public service, I’ve now decided that I ought to share my experiences. Only my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren may be interested in the final result, but leaving a record for them is in itself a worthwhile endeavor. Since I’m 82 and had a cancerous kidney removed just before reaching 80, it’s also obvious to me that I had better get with it.
These pages are not a last ego trip or an attempt to set the record straight or to expose, tattle on, or “get” anyone. (There are only a few people I will even politely criticize.) I have tried to record the moments in history through which I lived, make observations about governmental processes, remember those with whom I served or who impacted my life, and do that in a way that is a bit philosophical and humorous. What’s here is my best effort to write a truthful account of what happened to a Hoosier who loved being a small-town physician, but saw politics and public service become his incurable disease.
This is an informal book, a personal account drawn from memory. For that reason, it has no bibliography or footnotes.
This book would have been impossible without the help of others. They include:
• Bill Du Bois of Greenwood. Bill did the necessary research to develop questions that would prod my memory, took me through a yearlong series of interviews, and edited the transcripts of the interviews into this volume. He also checked my recollections against the facts when I was uncertain of them or could not recall the details.
• Becky Feldman, a retired Bremen teacher, who transcribed our interviews.
• Gordon Englehart of Indianapolis, who before retiring was the very able Statehouse correspondent for the Louisville Courier-Journal , and Fred McCarthy of Indianapolis, who before retiring headed the Indiana Manufacturers Association. Both read the draft manuscript and made many helpful suggestions.
• Those who helped with research for this book. These include Bowen Museum curator Dr. Stanley M. Taylor, a Bethel College professor emeritus of education and one of the college’s original faculty members when it opened in 1947; Bethel College archivist Timothy Paul Erdel, a theological librarian and an assistant professor of religion and philosophy who maintains the Bowen Archives; Star Jarvis, Educational Resources Center coordinator at the Bowen Library; State Librarian C. Raymond Ewick; Andrea B. Hough of the State Library and her staff; and Dr. Gerald (Jerry) Handfield, Commission on Public Records director, and his Archives Division staff.
Otis R. Bowen, M.D. Bremen, Indiana June 1998
  Doc  
1
Family, Friends, and School
I WAS BORN on February 26, 1918, to Vernie and Pearl Irene (Wright) Bowen at the farm home of my paternal grandparents, John Pierce and Rebecca Jane (Hartman) Bowen, who lived north of the Tippecanoe River between Richland Center and Leiters Ford in Richland Township, Fulton County, Indiana. My understanding is that I weighed between seven and seven and a half pounds at birth.
When a few months old, I’m told, I had a severe case of whooping cough that raised questions about my survival. We now know that I lived, and I have concluded that there were no permanent ill effects.
My first childhood memory is the birth of my sister, Evelyn. I was two years old. I don’t recall where my mother was, but I remember Dad shepherding my older sister and me around. When he made breakfast, I didn’t like the boiled egg he prepared. I’m reputed to have been a “mama’s baby,” so that probably accounts for my protest.
Another early memory involves crocks of apple butter we were taking home from my Uncle Leo and Aunt Alice Norris’s place. We were in our family car’s back seat, the crocks on the floor in front of us. My father says I fell asleep, awoke with a start, and put one of my new red shoes through the paper covering on a crock. Forever after, Aunt Alice teased me for saying, “I stepped in the apple butter.”
My light-colored hair and freckles may be why my great-uncle, Daurcy S. Smith, husband of Berdelia (Delia) Rush, my Grandma Wright’s sister, called me “towhead.”
I can’t explain why I recall these isolated episodes and facts but remember nothing else until I started school at age five.
The Bowens are a typically American mixture of Welsh, English, Irish, German, and other nationalities. My roots run deep in Fulton County. Constant Bowen (1781-1843) and his wife, Sarah (Hill) Bowen (1799-1849), my paternal great-great-grandparents, came to Fulton County at least two years before the Potawatomi Indians were removed west. Two sets of maternal great-great-great-grandparents, Jeremiah and Achsah Ormsbee and Joseph and Mary (Horn) Robbins, came to Fulton County in the 1830s. Many other ancestors came there before 1850.
Dad was just plain Vernie. He had no middle name. I always thought Grandma and Grandpa Bowen ran out of names or lost interest when they got to Dad, who was their fifteenth child. After graduating from high school in 1915 at age 17, Dad attended a six-week Valparaiso University summer course. That fall, he taught all eight grades in a one-room school for $2.50 a day. He was the janitor and nurse and carried in wood for the stove and water for drinking. For that extra work, he received another 10 cents a day.
To keep his teaching permit, Dad attended “summer school” at Manchester College and Valparaiso University for seventeen straight years and took courses by correspondence. His studies took him away for six weeks each summer. We lived on a small farm most of that time. In his absence, Mom and I (and, to a lesser degree, my older sister) tended our big garden and did the chores. As a high school sophomore, I attended Dad’s college graduation. He later worked on his master’s degree.
Dad started teaching in one-room rural Fulton County schools, including Germany Station, District 11, and “Dead Man’s College,” so called because it was on the site of an old cemetery. He later taught at Kewanna (1920–24) and Fulton (1924–34) in Fulton County; Francesville in Pulaski County (1934–36);