Mark Bowman, retired director of Bowen Lab, reflects on his 42-plus years on faculty

Mark Bowman (BSCE’74, MSCE’75) visited his first construction site as a kid. His father, John Bowman (BSCE’42), had an architectural and engineering firm, Medland and Bowman, based in Logansport, Indiana.

“My father would take me out to job sites to help with surveys and things,” said Bowman, professor emeritus of civil engineering. “His firm did work in a six county area around Cass County. They built all kinds of schools and banks and churches — you name it. They weren’t gigantic structures, but the structures they built are important to the people who live in those communities.”

Those trips with his father imbued Bowman with a love of civil engineering and set him on a course that would culminate in a 42 and a half year-career on Purdue’s faculty including seven years as director of the Robert L. and Terry L. Bowen Laboratory for Large-Scale Civil Engineering Research. John Bowman died of cancer while his son was still in high school, but the elder Bowman’s enthusiasm for Purdue and civil engineering left an indelible mark.

“I looked up to my dad a lot growing up,” Bowman said. “At the time, I didn’t realize how much my interactions with him influenced my decision to become a civil engineer. I always had an interest in building things, that’s what I wanted to do. My dad brought me to the Purdue campus many times so I was pretty sold on Purdue early on.”

As an undergraduate in the early 1970s, Bowman joined Triangle Fraternity and was active in the Purdue chapter of Chi Epsilon, the national civil engineering honor society, two student organizations for which he’d later serve as longtime advisor after joining the Purdue faculty.

First, Bowman spent two years working in industry in Michigan after graduating with his master’s from Purdue. He designed structures built with prestressed precast concrete in a six-state region in the Midwest. Eager for his next challenge, he decided to continue his education.

Bowman earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. There, his research focused on steel design and involved projects with the Illinois Department of Transportation and the U.S. Navy. He interviewed with a few different universities as well as big oil companies.

“I basically ended up with offers from all of them and I had to decide whether I wanted to go the industrial route or go into education,” Bowman said. “Education was attractive because of the chance to do independent research as well as teaching. I love interacting with students in the classroom.”

Bowman joined the Purdue faculty in the spring semester of 1981. In his four decades teaching, he remained driven by the quality of the students — many of whom have gone on to have remarkable careers in civil engineering themselves. Ron Klemencic (BSCE’85) is CEO of Magnusson Klemencic Associates, an international, award-winning structural and civil engineering firm headquartered in Seattle. Bowman, along with Mike Kreger, former director of Bowen Lab, collaborated with Klemencic on a project that involved one of the largest specimens that’s ever been built at Bowen.

The large, double-skinned steel structure with an infill of concrete went up just shy of the top of Bowen’s 40-foot strong wall. That full circle moment of seeing a student he once mentored in the old civil engineering structural lab now becoming a project partner in the large-scale research lab fills Bowman with pride. But it’s only one story of thousands he could tell.

“So many of my students have gone on to have successful careers in the field,” Bowman said. “I’ve been involved in a lot of influential research projects, but even then, it was the students I was working with and training who went out and did well for themselves — that’s what makes me proud.”

The shift to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic brought the possibility of retirement into sharp focus for Bowman. Though he loved engaging students in the classroom, uploading recorded lectures to a virtual platform wasn’t fulfilling.

“When you’re just talking to the wall, there’s nothing worse than that,” Bowman said. “Teaching in person enables direct interaction and dialogue with others. Working in a facility like Bowen, you can’t replicate that experience online.”

Since he retired in June 2023, Bowman and his wife, Barbara, have had more time to travel and visit their six grandchildren. But even though he’s busy in retirement, Bowman still keeps a pulse on Purdue.

“There’s always going to be a need for civil engineering,” he said. “Purdue’s facilities and equipment position the university at the forefront of our discipline. Continued investment in expert faculty who develop a high caliber of students will ensure we remain a leader in the field.”