(Top) Jeffrey Dunn for WGBH; (right) Evan Hansen
a l u mni
go. It was the only place I applied to. There was no question that [Ford] was the guy I wanted to study with.” It didn’t take Ford that long to realize Cowan was the perfect candidate to study at Michigan. “He was a very engaging person,” says Ford, who is now retired and living in New Mexico. “He had a mind that was looking for new directions of explanations in terms of archaeology. “When he got to Michigan, he took on a leadership role,” Ford continues. “I helped him obtain money; that was my job as a mentor. But he ran the whole thing.” Even though Cowan is no longer in the field, he says the tutelage of Ford and other professors at Michigan opened the doors to his current success. “I was exposed to new ways of thinking in ways I never had before,” says Cowan, who recently established an endowment at Michigan that helps anthropology students fund their radiocarbon dating and other dating technologies. “I use the training I received at Michigan every day in my job, even though I’m an auctioneer. The ability for me to critically think and know how to research, I attribute that to the way I was trained to think at Michigan.” Although Cowan enjoys his profession as an auctioneer, he readily admits that working with the PBS series allows him to delve deeper into his passions. Working as an appraiser for Antiques Roadshow gives Cowan recognition among antique collectors throughout the country and it led to his role on History Detectives, which is in its seventh season. Whether researching bullets said to be linked with the deaths of Bonnie and Clyde, or conversing with Dr. Francis Bonner in his Long Island backyard
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The ability for me to critically think and know how to research, I attribute that to the way I was trained to think at Michigan.
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about his role in the top-secret Manhattan Project, Cowan’s passion for highlighting the alluring stories that history books tend to neglect never wavers. “I feel very privileged to be doing this,” he says. “I get to go places and see things and do things that the average American will never get to do. I get to meet people who are experts in American history that most people wouldn’t get to talk to. It’s an honor, really.” n
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What building am i?
X Debate swirled leading up to my construction in 1910. What purpose would I serve? Z Now, after a recent renovation and expansion bringing the old and new together, there can be no doubt.
Answers on p. 56
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