Fairman Chaffee Cowan

Fairman Cowan, an ardent advocate of Worcester, Mass., died on October 14, 2008. In October 1995 he received the Isaiah Thomas Award for outstanding public service. A graduate of Amherst College in 1937 and Harvard Law School in 1940, he helped plan the Normandy invasion as a Naval Intelligence officer, serving on the USS Augusta on D-Day. Fairman cowan was a partner at Goodwin, Proctor & Hoar prior to joining the Norton company in Worcester in 1955. He retired from Norton in 1979 and for the next eleven years was of counsel for Bowditch & Dewey. He was a patron of the arts including the Boston and Worcester symphonies, Worcester Art Museum, and the Foothills Theatre, and vice chairman of the board of trustees of Clark University. He served on many civic organizations including the Alliance for education and Advocates for excellence in public education, and was vice chairman of the Civic Center Commission. In 2005 a fund was established in his name at the Worcester Regional Research Bureau in recognition of his role as a founder and leader.