Caspar Frank Cowan ’36 died on December 23, 2006, in Seattle, Washington.

Born on May 7, 1915, in Calais, he prepared for college at Deering High School in Portland and became a member of Delta Upsilon Fraternity at Bowdoin. Following his graduation in 1936, he entered Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1940. He also studied at Peabody Law School in Portland in 1937-38. He practiced law in Portland from 1940 to 1942, when he joined the 87th Mountain Infantry, which later became the 10th Mountain Division during World War II. He served in Italy and one night saved his squad from death by deflecting a live grenade and then shooting nine enemy machine gunners. He received a battlefield commission as a second lieutenant and was awarded the Bronze Star.After the war, he became a partner in the Portland law firm of Linnell, Perkins, Thompson, Hinckley, and Thaxter, with which he remained affiliated until his death.As an expert on Maine real estate law, he was the author of the standard text for Maine real estate practitioners, The Maine Real Estate Law and Practice, which, at the time of its publication in 1990, was the only complete work on the subject available. In 1991, he was elected president of the Maine Association of Insurance Companies and, through the years, served as chair of the Portland Renewal Authority and the Portland Housing Authority. He was a director of the State Mutual Fire Insurance Company and was its president in 1942 and 1948. He also participated regularly in operating the Wayside Soup Kitchen under the auspices of Woodfords Church. He helped organize local chapters in Portland of Kiwanis and the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing. He wrote a monthly column on computers and software for the Maine Bar Journal. He was married in 1946 to Nancy Linnell, who died in 1994, and is survived by two daughters, Joanna Allen of Seattle, WA, and June Roelle of Wheaton, IL; a son, Seth Cowan of New London,WI; a brother, Frederick Cowan of Canaan, VT; a sister, Cynthia Dunlap of Orono; and six grandchildren.