Arnold Wilson Cowen also known as Wilson Cowen, was successively a trial commissioner, a trial judge, and the chief judge of the appellate division of the United States Court of Claims

United States Court of Claims

The Court of Claims was a federal court that heard claims against the United States government. It was established in 1855 as the Court of Claims, renamed in 1948 to the United States Court of Claims , and abolished in 1982....

. Subsequently, he became a senior circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

-Vacancies and pending nominations:-List of former judges:-Chief judges:Notwithstanding the foregoing, when the court was initially created, Congress had to resolve which chief judge of the predecessor courts would become the first chief judge...

.

Wilson Cowen was born in Norse, not far from Clifton

Clifton, Texas

Clifton is the largest city in Bosque County in Central Texas. The city's population was 3,542 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Clifton is located at ....

, in Bosque County, Texas

Bosque County, Texas

Bosque County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2000, the population is 17,204. Its county seat is Meridian. Clifton, however, is the largest city and the cultural/financial center of the county. Bosque is named for the Bosque River, which runs through...

. He excelled in high school and won a scholarship to the University of Texas at Austin

University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...

. In 1928 he received his LL.B. from the University of Texas School of Law

University of Texas School of Law

The University of Texas School of Law, also known as UT Law, is an ABA-certified American law school located on the University of Texas at Austin campus. The law school has been in operation since the founding of the University in 1883. It was one of only two schools at the University when it was...

. He won election as a county judge of Dallam County, Texas, as a Democrat

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 in 1934. Dallam County was hard hit by the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 and the Dust Bowl

Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936...

, and Cowen found himself involved in federal programs to ameliorate conditions in the region. He was appointed in 1938 to the Farm Security Administration

Farm Security Administration

Initially created as the Resettlement Administration in 1935 as part of the New Deal in the United States, the Farm Security Administration was an effort during the Depression to combat American rural poverty...

.

He became a trial commissioner at the Court of Claims in 1942, but took a leave of absence the following year to serve as Assistant War Food Administrator. He returned to the Court in 1945, and was appointed chief trial commissioner in 1959. President Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...

 nominated him in 1964 to take the place of Chief Judge Marvin Jones

John Marvin Jones

Judge John Marvin Jones was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas and Chief Judge of the federal Court of Claims.-Biography:...

, who was retiring. He assumed the status of senior judge in 1977, and became a senior circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit by operation of the Federal Courts Improvement Act in 1982. He retired from active service in 1997.

Judge Cowen was interviewed to describe his experiences of the Dust Bowl for the television series The American Experience in a documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 entitled "Surviving the Dust Bowl", which aired in 1998.

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