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ROBERT ALEXANDER BOWMAN
1 907-1 977
BY JOHN R. KIELY
ROBERT ALEXANDER BOWMAN died November 29, 1977, at Fort
Collins, Colorado. He had retired from Bechtel as Senior Vice-
President and Director in 1973, alter more than four decades ol'
distinguished engineering accomplishments in the fields of' heat
transfer and power generation. In particular, he had a leading role
in the peaceful development ot' nuclear power.
Bob Bowman was born in Huntington, Indiana, on December
29, 1907. He attended high school in Rogers, Arkansas, and the
College ol' Engineering at the University ot' Arkansas, wherry he—
received his Bachelor of' Science degree in mechanical engineering
in 1929. In his senior year he was president oi-'r~Eau Beta Pi and the
General Engineering Society.
Upon graduation, he joined the Westinghouse Research Labora-
tories in East Pittsburgh, where he conducted performance tests on
experimental blowers and pumps with special emphasis on ventila-
tion of' electrical machinery. In 1931 he transferred to the South
Philadelphia Works of' Westinghouse, where he continued work on
flow and heat transfer problems. In 1933 he was transferred to the
heat transfer section, where he remained I'or I'il'teen years, becom-
ing Manager of' the Condenser Engineering Division in 1940.
Through his later years, Bob was remembered and admired by a
large number of' engineering and operating personnel in the
electric generating utilities as a man who had an innate instinct I'or
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analyzing and solving operating problems in heat transfer equip-
ment and rotating machinery.
In 1948 Bob Bowman was called on to serve as the first Manager
of Engineering of the Westinghouse Atomic Power Division at
Bettis Field and commenced building the organization that de-
veloped the light water reactor technology for the Naval Reactors
Program. This technology ultimately became the basic technology
for the U.S. power reactor program and eventually established the
light water reactor as the world standard. By the time Bob left
Westinghouse three years later to join Bechtel, the first land-based
prototype light water reactor was nearing completion at Arco,
Idaho; the first ship-based unit was committed and under construc-
tion; and the Engineering Department was well established. In
later years there were scores of technical people who had served
under Bob at Bettis and had spread out through the whole nuclear
industry and who looked upon Bob as a fine leader, teacher,
mentor, and, above all, a friend.
Bob Bowman joined Bechtel in 1951 as Chiet' Mechanical En-
gineer of' the Power and Industrial Division, in charge of me-
chanical engineering and station layout. In 1953 he became Man-
ager of' Division Engineering with responsibility for a wide range of
nuclear and fossil fueled generating stations, and industrial and
metallurgical plants. It was also in 1953 that Bechtel became
involved in nuclear power work through a cooperative study of
nuclear power with the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. This
study led to the association with several other utilities in the
Nuclear Power Group and, in turn, to the Dresden Nuclear Power
Plant committed in 1955 and completed four and one-hall' years
later.
In 1958 he was elected a corporate Vice-President and became
Division Manager in 1966. The I'ollowing year he was elected a
Director and in 1971 was appointed a Senior Vice-President. By the
time ol' his retirement, in 1973, Bob had been involved in the
engineering andior construction of over sixty nuclear power units
and was considered one of the foremost experts in this I'ield.
Bob Bowman was much honored for his professional ac-
complishments. He was a Fellow in the American Society of Me-
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chanical Engineers and a Member Emeritus and Fellow of the
American Nuclear Society. He was elected a Member of the Na-
tional Academy of Engineering in 1970. Among the honors he
received were the American Society of Mechanical Engineers'
George Westinghouse Gold Medal for "distinguished service in the
power field" and "leadership in the development of economic
power generation stations" in 1965. In 1966 he was installed in the
Hall of Fame in Engineering at the University of Arkansas and in
1969 also received that institution's highest honor, the Distin-
guished Alumnus Award.
Bob Bowman held five patents in the field of heat transfer and
was described by one of his colleagues as "one of the most knowl-
edgeable men in the country in the whole area of thermodynamics
and power cycles. It anyone came up with a new way of doing
something, it went to Bob. With his vast knowledge he could sense
immediately if we were on the right track. A lot of the techniques
we use today wouldn't have been possible without Bob."
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water reactor
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