Daniel J. Bowden was born in 1906. Bowden graduated from Yale Divinity School in 1935, and continued on at Yale to earn his Ph.D. in 1937. In 1935 he began working at Elon as both the head of the Religious Education department, and an associate professor of Christian Education. In 1944 Bowden became the Dean of Elon College, and became the Dean of Men at Elon College in 1949. In 1953 Bowden left Elon and became the Administrative Director of the School of Religion at the University of Indiana. He later returned to Elon to give the Summer Graduation Address in August of 1965. Throughout Bowden’s years as Dean of Elon he received many letters from the warfront from Elon Students who paused their education to serve the country. Bowden knew many of the men personally, as he was the faculty advisor for the Sigma Phi Beta fraternity during his time at Elon. Bowden passed away in July of 1997.
