R.I.P.: Former Radio, TV Newsman Jack Bowden

Jack Bowden

Jack Bowden, a former WMAR-TV news anchor and reporter for more than two decades, died of leukemia Wednesday at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson.

He was 82, according to The Baltimore Sun.

Bowden spent 21 years in television and left WMAR in 1988 in a contract dispute. In December 1989 he joined WBAL radio and hosted an afternoon news journal program.

"He was a household word in the mid-1960s," said Richard Sher, a friend who is moderator of the WMAR-TV program "Square Off."

"Jack was a consummate professional. He had class and he was a gentleman," said Mr. Sher. "He was also a brilliant journalist. Jack always had the time for a laugh, a good cigar and a glass of bourbon. He was just a wonderful human being."

Born in Baltimore and raised in Walbrook, he was the son of Joseph R. Bowden, a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad auditor, and Marion Crane. He was a 1950 graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, where he began his broadcast career in 1955 at the campus radio station. He served in the Army's Finance Corps during the Korean War.

He initially worked at WFMD radio in Frederick. Then, in 1960, he became a classical music announcer at WBAL-FM. He worked a year at WBAL-TV and joined WMAR in 1967.