Donald Milton Cowan

DONALD MILTON COWAN (Don) was born to Calvin Cowan and Frances Phillips, April 20,1949 in Paonia, Colorado, and passed away on July 18, 2023 in Newport News, Virginia. He grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He attended grade school, junior high school and high school in Las Cruces, and received his BA in art from Cal State College in Fresno, California. He married Andrea Boll in 1970. They moved back to Las Cruces in 1976 where Don achieved his MA in fine art from New Mexico State University. In 1973 Don and Andrea learned how to teach Transcendental Meditation from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and devoutly practiced TM for fifty-four years. Don and Andrea had three daughters and six grandchildren. His daughters and grandchildren were the light of his life. He taught art at El Paso Community College for forty-one years, a job that he loved, and was chairman of the Art Department for a number of years. He retired from EPCC on December 31, 2022. Don loved traveling with Andrea to visit their children and grandchildren, to Transcendental Meditation retreats, and had a particular fondness for Hawaii. The couple also traveled frequently to attend concerts, particularly Grateful Dead and Dead & Company. Don loved surfing and took his own boards to the ocean as often as he could. Don had a deep appreciation for art and music and passed that on to his children and grandchildren. He was loved by everyone who met him, he was kind and friendly in ways very few people are. "If you weren't friends with him there was something wrong with you!" Don is survived by Andrea, his wife of 53 years, by three daughters, Deirdre Rice, Heather Cowan-Fricke, and Brigit Smiley, three sons-in-law, James Rice, Shawn Fricke, and Lake Smiley, by six grandchildren, Hannah Rice (22), of Amarillo, Texas, Jonathan Rice (17), of Gloucester, Virginia, Finn (8) and Hudson (5) Cowan-Fricke, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Morgan (11) and Latham (6) Smiley, of Kingston, Oklahoma, by two sisters, Margo Morris and Chella Gottsponer. A funeral service will be at 2 PM on Tuesday, July 25, at Getz Funeral Home Chapel. First Visitation

Getz Funeral Home Chapel

1410 E. Bowman Ave.
Las Cruces, NM 88001






Service Information
Tuesday, July 25, 2023 2:00pm,
Getz Funeral Home Chapel

1410 E. Bowman Ave.
Las Cruces, NM 88001






Interment Location

Ceder Hills Cemetery

Address Not Available