Dr. Jacob Van Bowen Jr., retired professor of mathematics, died Nov. 26, 2004. Bowen, R’64, joined the University’s faculty in 1968 and retired in 2001.
Bowen’s students fondly remember using a catapult to launch pingpong balls in his statistics classes. They measured the distance the balls traveled during numerous attempts. They recorded the data and analyzed it statistically.
“He used a lot of humor in class and was very popular with students in the upper-level statistics courses that he taught,” recalls Dr. Lewis Barnett, chair of the mathematics and computer science department.
Bowen held the Roger and Mary Richardson Chair of Mathematics and Computer Science from 1992–98, and he chaired the department from 1994–97.
“He was a man of outstanding human qualities and characteristics,” says Chancellor E. Bruce Heilman. He was “a man of integrity, a leader in his academic pursuits. He had a deep concern for the welfare of his fellow man.”
© 2005, Richmond Alumni Magazine
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