Clotilde Bowen

Clotilde D. Bowen, MD (1913 – 2011) paved the way for future generations with a life of firsts, beginning as the first Black woman to graduate from The Ohio State University College of Medicine. She was also the first Black woman physician in the United States Army. Later, Bowen became the first Black woman colonel and the first woman commander of any military hospital. 

Bowen accepted her military commission as captain in 1956 and served as a pulmonary specialist. After leaving the miliary, she worked for the Veteran’s Administration (V.A.) Hospital in Roseburg, Oregon as an internist, and later pursued a residency in psychiatry through the V.A. in Albany, NY. She returned to military service as a psychiatrist during the Vietnam War in Hawaii and Colorado, where she served as director of the civilian health and medical program of the Uniformed Services, chief of psychiatry and chief of the out-patient clinic. 

From 1970 to 1971, Bowen was stationed in Vietnam as the neuropsychiatric physician for the entire U.S. Army. She received the American Legion of Merit in 1971 for her work to set up drug treatment centers and her efforts to lessen racial conflicts during the Vietnam War. 

As a member of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), Bowen assisted in developing the program on emergency psychiatry. She received the prestigious Fellow of the APA award, Fellow of the Central Neuro-Psychiatric Association, Fellow of The Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine and the U.C.C.F. Eminent Scholar Award, in addition to many others. In 1972, she received the Denver Business and Professional Woman of the Year Award. 

After retiring from military service in 1996, Bowen accepted employment with the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals in Chicago, IL, traveling throughout the U.S. She later returned to the V.A. as chief of psychiatry in Cheyenne, WY, and the V.A. Clinic in Colorado Springs, CO. In 2001, Bowen accepted staff teaching positions from the University of Wyoming, Laramie and The University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver. 

Bowen was raised on an army post in Columbus, Ohio, from the age of three by her maternal uncle, 1st Lt. Stephen Barrows, a Buffalo Soldier, and aunt, Maude (Tynes) Barrows. She traced her belief in the power of education back to her grandparents, who were born into slavery on a plantation outside of Atlanta, Georgia. After the Civil War, both her grandparents were granted freedom and an education. That gift to her grandparents – the opportunity to participate in a formal learning program – began a family legacy of improving lives through education. 

Further Reading: 

“Black Americans in Military Psychiatry.” In Black Psychiatrists and American Psychiatry, edited by Jeanne Spurlock, 95-108. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 1999. 

“Dr. Clotilde Dent Bowen: A Proud Legacy.” Ohio State Medicine Alumni Magazine (Winter 2019): 12. go.osu.edu/bowen-legacy 

 Ohio State College of Medicine Looking Back Article

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