Adios, Doc

I was startled to hear that Otis Bowen, who was governor of Indiana from 1973 to 1981 and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Ronald Reagan, died Saturday in a Donaldson, Ind., nursing home at the age of 95.

I was startled because I didn’t realize he was still alive.

I have a picture of me and Doc Bowen shaking hands at the Indianapolis Press Club back in the 1970s when I was elected to the Press Club board of directors. I can’t find it to post here, so this photo I shot at the dedication of a now-defunct theme park near Thorntown in 1971 will have to suffice.

Doc Bowen (he was an M.D. from Bremen, Ind.) served two terms and was generally well liked. He was a Republican.