Donald Bruce Cowan, son of Stanley E. and Edna Sophia (Johnson) Cowan, stood on a slight rise of empty plains southwest of Wichita Falls one early spring morning in 1960. Heavy construction equipment soon would begin etching the footprint of a new high school into the red clay soil where he stood. Accompanied only by sighing wind, the trill of meadowlarks and a creaky old pump jack, this rookie music teacher stood listening to a dream.

Born in Fargo, ND, Don Cowan grew up in Moorhead, MN, literally in the shadow of Concordia College, home of Concordia Choir, the House of Paul J. Christiansen and a bastion of the Lutheran a cappella choral tradition established in this country by Paul’s legendary immigrant Norwegian father, F. Melius Christiansen. A sneak peek of what was to come emerged at Moorhead High School where Don Cowan was student director of a 120-voice choir. Cowan graduated from Moorhead High in May of 1950. North Korea invaded South Korea that June, and Cowan enlisted in the Air Force where he was assigned to the 761st Air Force Band at Sheppard Air Force Base, Wichita Falls, TX. Initially assigned as a clarinetist, he worked his way through three dance bands attached to SAFB to play alto saxophone with the top band, the Airliners.

The Airliners played for USO dances at the Women’s YWCA in town, and Cowan received $9 a night for the 4-hour gigs. He would find something much more valuable than the cash before the last dance.

Barbara June Humphries. A dark-haired beauty with poise, grace and moves on the dance floor that were impossible not to notice. And Cowan noticed. Every night that Barbara June came to the club, Cowan noticed little else. But what chance did a tall, skinny kid with a goofy grin have with a beauty like her? As it happened, Barbara June’s best friend was married to a fellow saxophone player in the Airliners. Cowan’s colleague told him that his wife had told him that Barbara June had said, “You know, Don Cowan is kind of cute, don’t you think?”

Did not take long after that for Cowan to take a break from the band and ask June for a date.

Cowan’s enlistment ended shortly before Christmas, 1954. He took his honorable discharge and headed home to Moorhead but soon discovered that his heart had failed to make the trip. Before the snows had begun to melt Cowan returned to Wichita Falls and took Barbara June for his bride.

He registered at Midwestern University to seek a degree in music education. Signing up at the band table, he was told he would have to march. Cowan told the nice man he had spent the last four years marching. He really did not care to march. The nice man told him he would have to march if he joined the band program. Cowan smiled, turned on his heel and crossed the hall to the choir registration table.

He earned a Bachelor of Music Education with a major in choral music, minor in voice, in 1958. The Wichita Falls Independent School District immediately offered a position teaching choir at Reagan Junior High School. The following year he established a choir program at the new Barwise Junior High School, where he composed the music for the school’s Alma Mater, A brand new high school was waiting just around the corner.

S.H. Rider High School opened for classes in the fall of 1961. Cowan composed words and music for the school’s Alma Mater. His first choir department consisted of 59 students in two choirs founded in the Lutheran a cappella tradition. One afternoon while perusing sheet music at Max Kruetz House of Music, he noticed a sign over a bin that read “The Greatest Choir Ever”. Cowan asked the late Max Kruetz if he might buy the sign. After hearing why the choir director wanted it, Kruetz gave the sign to him.

The next morning students noisily settled into the choir room. “Quiet please, spit out your gum and sit down!” Cowan called out with what would become a signature call to order. “See that sign?” Cowan said, pointing to the new sign placed upside down in the window of his office. “When I decide you have earned the right to call yourselves ‘The Greatest Choir Ever’, I’ll turn the sign right side up.”

For 32 years Rider’s elite A Cappella Choirs strove to turn that sign over. In the course of that quest they recorded 32 albums and performed in New York City, Washington, D.C., the State Capital in Austin, Mexico City. Taxco, Canada. Moorhead, Minnesota and 12 major cathedrals of Europe.

Don Cowan touched and shaped the lives of nearly 3,000 students in his three decades at Rider. He still considers alumni of his choirs his “kids”. June 25, 2011, a bunch of Cowan’s Kids returned to the Memorial Auditorium stage and Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth as the Donald B. Cowan Legacy Choir to sing some two-hours’ worth of Cowan’s favorite selections including “Beautiful Savior” just One More Time!

Mr. Cowan leaves his wife, Barbara June, his daughter, Dana Sandberg and his two sons, David and Jon, as well as his three grandchildren, Brandon Sandberg, Emily Cowan and Sarah Cowan, and his sister Nancy McCann.

Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 30, 2015 at First United Methodist Church with Rev. Paul Goodrich, Sr. Pastor, officiating. Interment will follow at Riverside Cemetery under the direction of Owens & Brumley Funeral Home of Wichita Falls.

The family will receive friends 6 until 7 p.m. Friday, May 29, 2015 at Owens & Brumley Funeral Home.

For those desiring, memorials may be made to Hospice of Wichita Falls, 4909 Johnson Road, Wichita Falls, TX. 76310; or to the American Cancer Society of Wichita Falls, 2304 Midwestern Pkwy Ste 206, Wichita Falls, TX 76308-2334.

Condolences may be sent to the family at www.owensandbrumley.com