D. Isaiah Bowman^[1]

1878 - 1950  (71 years)

• Name	Isaiah Bowman
  Prefix	D.
  Born	26 Dec 1878	Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [2, 3]
  Gender	Male
  Died	6 Jan 1950	Baltimore, Baltimore (City), Maryland, USA   [3]
  Hall of Fame - Waterloo Region	Bef 2012	, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [4]
  Interesting	story, racism, geography
  Eby ID Number	00002-106.4
  Buried	Evergreen Cemetery, Burnside Twp., Lapeer Co., Michigan   [3]
  Person ID	I6886	Generations
  Last Modified	6 Apr 2024

  
  

  Father	Samuel C. Bowman,   b. 23 Dec 1852, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 7 Feb 1924, Maple Valley, Sanilac Co., Michigan  (Age 71 years)
  Mother	Emily Shantz,   b. 18 Feb 1854, Waterloo City, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 1921  (Age 66 years)
  Married	9 Dec 1873	Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [5, 6]
  Family ID	F2078	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos

  Bowman, Isaiah 1878-1950.jpg

  
  

• Notes

  Isaiah Bowman was born in Waterloo County of Pennsylvania German parents, who moved to Michigan when he was a small child. His great scholastic achievements won for him distinction in many fields and he became known as one of the world's foremost geographers. A graduate of Harvard and Yale Universities, he became a professor at Yale. He led expeditions to South America in 1907 and 1913 and served as geographer and geologist on a Peruvian expedition in 1911. He was President of Johns Hopkins University from 1935 to 1948. Dr. Bowman accompanied the American delegation to the Peace Conference following World War I and was adviser to Presidents Wilson and Roosevelt. He also took part in the World Security Conference in Dunbarton Oaks in 1944. In honour of his memory and in recognition of his many accomplishments, the University of Waterloo named its Social Science Building, "The Isaiah Bowman Building Waterloo Region Hall of Fame ______________________ University of Waterloo quietly removes plaque, portrait of anti-Semite American scholar calls on UW to publicly explain why it was wrong to name a building after 'lifelong eugenicist, anti-Semite, and racist' By Terry PenderRecord Reporter WATERLOO REGION - The University of Waterloo has quietly removed a portrait and plaque from a campus building dedicated to a noted scholar and administrator who was also a notorious anti-Semite. When it was built in the late 1960s, the Environment 1 building \emdash known as EV-1 \emdash was named after Isaiah Bowman, a pre-eminent geographer and adviser to Franklin Roosevelt who was born in Waterloo County in the late 1800s. But an American researcher says Bowman was a virulent anti-Semite, a racist and strong supporter of eugenics. Sandford Jacoby, a Distinguished Research Professor in history, management and public policy at the University of California Los Angeles, raised a red flag earlier this month about Waterloo's Bowman connection after he learned about Bowman's history of anti-Semitism, racism and support for eugenics. "After a short delay due to the pandemic, we removed the material this year," said university spokesperson Nick Manning. The university is committed to address systemic racism in all its forms, he said. Naming the building after Bowman does not reflect the values of the university today, Manning said. The name was officially changed to Environment 1 in 2008, and the university just got around to removing the portrait and plaque. Jacoby came across Bowman's University of Waterloo connection while researching U.S. immigration policy before and during the Second World War. Knowing he had at least one family member, an uncle, who was murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust, Jacoby started researching what happened to his relatives under the Nazis. That's how he learned of Bowman's work and influence and discovered online a publication called "The First 50 Years: A History of the University of Waterloo Environmental Studies Faculty," written by Robert Shipley, a retired school of urban planning professor in time for the faculty's anniversary in May 2019. Jacoby was outraged after learning the University of Waterloo had named a building after Bowman and has never publicly explained why that was wrong. Bowman was born in 1875 into a Mennonite family near Linwood, in what was then Waterloo County. The family soon moved, joining a Mennonite colony in Michigan. He left Michigan to attend Harvard University, and eventually became a professor of geography at Yale. He became a Presbyterian and married the daughter of a Harvard professor. He left Yale to become president of the American Geographical Society. In 1918, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson asked Bowman and the society to help redraw the borders of Europe after the First World War. "It launched his career as a Washington insider," said Jacoby. "In 1938 he became an adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on refugee affairs." Bowman successfully supported very low quotas on Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis. Instead of allowing Jews into the U.S., Bowman said they should be settled in places with few whites, so as not to "antagonize" them, such as Guyana, Kenya and the Philippines. "Bowman was complicit in efforts to make it difficult for Jewish refugees to escape to the U.S. during the Nazi period," said Jacoby. Bowman played a minor role in the 1945 San Francisco peace conference that led to the creation of the United Nations. During his time as president of Johns Hopkins University \emdash from 1935 to 1948 \emdash Bowman discriminated against African-American students and Jewish professors, said Jacoby. Jacoby knew all this when he read the history of Waterloo's environment faculty and learned the university had named a building after Bowman. Jacoby immediately contacted Shipley with a bunch of questions. That was on April 11 \emdash almost three years after Shipley's departmental history was first published. Shipley said he emailed Jean Andrey, the dean of the environment faculty, to let her know Jacoby would be getting in touch with some questions about Bowman and the university. Within days Bowman's photo and plaque were quietly removed. The University of Waterloo is going about the situation all wrong, said Jacoby. "Transparency regarding its removal of the Bowman plaque is vital," said Jacoby. "The university ought to be proud, not secretive about what it's done \emdash students must learn about the past so that it will never be repeated." Bowman's ideas can still be seen in headlines today. "Just the other day Britain announced a plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, stooping to racist, anti-immigrant sentiments of pro-Brexit voters," said Jacoby. "It's eerily reminiscent of Bowman's approach." Editor's Note: This article has been edited to remove an incorrect account of a trip to Germany. "University Of Waterloo Quietly Removes Plaque, Portrait Of Anti-Semite". 2022. Therecord.Com. https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/2022/04/23/university-of-waterloo-quietly-removes-plaque-portrait-of-anti-semite.html.

  
  

• Sources

  [S3] Book - Vol I A Biographical History of Waterloo Township and other townships of the county : being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin..., 78. [S142] Census - Michigan - 1880, Lynn, St. Clair, Michigan Family History Library Film 1254605 < NA Film Number T9-0605 Page Number 299D. [S3231] Find A Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/170229233. [S220] Waterloo Region Hall of Fame Waterloo Region Hall of Fame. [S10] Book - Vol II A Biographical History of Waterloo Township and other townships of the county : being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin..., 417. [S4] Vit - ON - Marriage Registration, 013056-73. Samuel Bowman, 20, occ. Yeoman, b. Wilmot, res. Wilmot, son of Moses S. and Anna married Emily Shontz, 19, b. Waterloo, res. Waterloo, daughter of Samuel and Rebecca, witnessed by: Samuel Shontz of Waterloo and Moses S. Bowman of Wilmot, 9 December 1873 in Waterloo Twp.

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 26 Dec 1878 - Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Died - 6 Jan 1950 - Baltimore, Baltimore (City), Maryland, USA Hall of Fame - Waterloo Region - Bef 2012 - , Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth