David M. Bowen, superintendent of the training department of the Kansas State Manual Training Normal School, at Pittsburg, Kan., was born in Wayne county, Indiana, Oct. 8, 1860, son of Patrick and Nora (Cleary) Bowen, both of whom were born in Ireland but came to the United States during childhood, and met and married in Indiana. The father is a farmer and contractor and has made a success of his business. David M. Bowen was educated in the public schools of his native state, at Spiceland Academy, Spiceland, Ind.; and the Indiana Normal School at Danville, where he graduated in the teacher's course. In 1886 he came to Kansas and took up a claim in the western part of the state, but the following year entered the normal school at Fort Scott, in which he graduated in 1889, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Since that time he has taken graduate work at the Indiana State University and the School of Education at the University of Chicago. Immediately after graduating in the normal at Fort Scott, Mr. Bowen began teaching in that city as principal of a ward school. In 1895 he was offered and accepted the position of superintendent of the Fort Scott schools and held that position until he became associated with the normal at Pittsburg. When Mr. Bowen began teaching at Fort Scott there was only a small building for high school purposes, but he developed the school, the attendance increased, and many of the pupils who studied under him have entered higher institutions of learning. He introduced manual training into the schools of Fort Scott, that city being one of the first in the state to adopt it. In 1907 he was elected president of the Kansas State Teachers' Association, of which he had been a member for twenty years. Mr. Bowen's work at Fort Scott, along manual training lines, brought him in touch with other men in the educational work and, in 1909, he was offered the superintendency of the training department at the Pittsburg Normal School, which he accepted. His work there is supervising and directing the training of teachers. He is making a great success of his chosen line and probably has as wide an acquaintance and reputation among the teachers and educators of Kansas as any man in the state. Mr. Bowen is an active member of the National Teachers' Association and of the Southeastern Kansas Teachers' Association, being one of the oldest members, and has served in all the offices. He has served on the legislative committee for the State Teachers' Association during two terms of the legislature. He is a Democrat in politics and was the candidate of his party for Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kansas in 1910. On Aug. 23, 1899, Mr. Bowen married Katherine Dowling, of Oshkosh, Wis., and two children have been born to them—Dorothy and James. The family are members of the Catholic church and Mr. Bowen is a member of the Knights of Columbus.