Combined love of God, medicine stretched from Tyrone to Iran
The Rev. LeRoy W. Bowers, M.D., combined his two great loves, God and medicine, to touch the lives of thousands of people across the world in his 96 years on Earth.
An ordained Presbyterian minister and one of the first black men to graduate from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Dr. Bowers worked for 43 years as a physician in Pittsburgh, in Tyrone, Blair County, and in Iran, where he served as a medical missionary.
Dr. Bowers, who had been living with dementia in a care home in Baden, died Aug. 17.
A native of Orange, N.J., Dr. Bowers first became interested in missionary work when he attended a lecture at the YMCA, where his late father, Joseph Bowers, was executive director.
Dr. Bowers graduated from Orange High School in 1939 and earned a bachelor’s degree at Johnson C. Smith University in 1943. He attended Union Theological Seminary in 1943-1944, before graduating in 1946 with a bachelor of divinity degree fromthe School of Theology at VirginiaUnion University.
He was ordained into the Presbyterian ministry in 1948 and earned his medical degree three years later from Pitt, where he met undergraduate student Jean Farrish.
The couple married June 17, 1951 — the day after Dr. Bowers graduated. He was the only black student in his class and was among the first black students to graduate from the school, said spokesman Arvind Suresh.
The couple raised six children before Mrs. Bowers’ death in 2009.
Dr. Bowers completed his residency in general surgery at Montefiore Hospital in Pittsburgh before he and his wife were dispatched to serve as missionaries in Iran.
With three small children in tow, the family sailed from New York to Beirut, Lebanon, in February 1958, before traveling the final leg of the trip to Hamadan, Iran.
His daughter, Elizabeth Bowers, who was 3 years old when they arrived, remembers her childhood fondly.
“I loved growing up there,” said Ms. Bowers, an analyst for the National Institute for Mental Health in Washington, D.C. “Life was very good and the people there were very kind to us. They loved my father. He practiced his ministry through medicine.”
Dr. Bowers served as a medical missionary for seven years, including two years as director of the Hamadan Christian Hospital, one of four in the country that was funded by the United Presbyterian Church. As a general practitioner and surgeon, Dr. Bowers cared for a wide variety of patients and delivered hundreds of babies.
When the family returned to the U.S. in 1965, racial tensions were at an all-time high, prompting Dr. Bowers to accept a medical post in Tyrone rather than others he had been offered in Pittsburgh or New Jersey, his daughter recalled.
“My parents didn’t want to to be in a major city with children who had not grown up in the United States,” she said. “They felt a small town would be a better place to raise black children in 1965.”
His son, Sewickley ophthalmologist Richard A. Bowers, 57, recalls a period of adjustment.
“I was the only black kid in my class,” said Richard Bowers, who was born in Iran.
But, he also often went with his father to visit patients during house calls, and Richard Bowers said he learned early on that race had little to do with medical care.
“In the 1960s, my dad was a black man who had almost 100 percent white patients,” he said. “These patients trusted my dad.”
At the height of his career, Dr. Bowers had the largest medical practice in the central Pennsylvania town, where he served as a family doctor and staff member at Tyrone Hospital from 1965 until his retirement in 1994. He also was president of the hospital’s medical staff for many years.
“It taught me that if you were competent, and you did your job and you were passionate about what you did, you would be fine,” Richard Bowers said.
Going on house calls with his father, who was also president of the Blair County Medical Society for two years, taught him many life lessons as well, Richard Bowers said.
“My father was dedicated to the people in that town. He was up bright and early every day and he didn’t get home till late at night,” he said. “Sometimes he would be paid in eggs or venison because patients didn’t have money. That’s really what taught me what rural poor was.”
In 1967, Dr. Bowers was appointed to the Blair County Advisory Council of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, and he helpedto establish a Meals on Wheels program with the local Presbyterian church in 1972, after he became concerned about a patient who lived alone and couldn’t preparehis own meals.
Dr. Bowers also served in the Huntington Presbytery as a guest minister at various churches in the region.
“He loved to preach and it was never a short sermon,” his son recalled. “I think he found a lot of enjoyment in that.”
Her father also taught by example, Ms. Bowers said.
“His ministry was very, very important to him,” she said. “I always appreciated his joy and the work he did in engaging people. He understood his ministry, his mission work, as a way of living your faith and living your work and having integrity. People will want to hear what you have to say when they see you living your faith.”
After he retired in 1994, Dr. Bowers and his wife relocated to Point Breeze to be nearer to their four grandchildren. Ten years later, they moved next door to their son and his family in Sewickley, where they made many friends and enjoyed spending time with their grandchildren.
“It was just such a blessing for our kids to have grandparents who lived next door,” Richard Bowers said. “The kids were always very, very happy to visit.”
After his wife’s death, Dr. Bowers moved to the Concordia at Villa St. Joseph care home.
“He loved people so much, so he was much happier in the nursing home,” his son said. “I really got to know my dad during those last eight years.”
On the last night of his life, he and his father were able to share one final memory, Richard Bowers said.
“My father loved singing and it was the last thing we did together,” he said. “I sang hymnsto him at his bedside. I sang the song “Take My Life And Let It Be,” and toward the end of that song, he startedmouthing the words. I sang it one more time, then I said goodbye. It was just not surprising the next day when I got the telephone call that he died.”
Along with his wife, Dr. Bowers was preceded in death by two brothers, Joseph and Dr. William Bowers, and his infant son, Steven.
In addition to his son, daughter and four grandchildren, Dr. Bowers is survived by sons David, of Alliance, Ohio, Jeffrey, of Washington, D.C., and Edward, of Colorado Springs, Colo.; and daughter Rachel, of Silver Springs,Md.
A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Sept. 15 at Community of Reconciliation Church in Oakland.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to that church,100 N. Bellefield Ave., Pittsburgh 15213 or corchurchpgh.orgvia PayPal.