Cyril Yarling Bowers, Jr., M.D.

Cyril Yarling Bowers, Jr. was born in Dayton, Ohio to Mildred Nadine and Cyril Yarling Bowers, not far from the Wright Brothers testing ground: Kitty Hawk. Like the Wright brothers Cyril wanted to soar. Often his life had hardships and deprivations. One of Cyril’s later favorite memories took place on board ship as a Navy doctor during the Korean war. ‘Hold the ship,’ the crew said , ‘Doc is operating.’ Growing up in Shelbyville, Indiana Was idyllic until his father an Engineer passed away from pneumonia when Cyril was almost 12. Then as a young boy Cyril started the many jobs which began his lifelong pursuit of helping people, as he helped support his mother Mildred and two older sisters Jane and Peggy. Jane went on to study art at University of Chicago where Peggy studied Astrophysics. At this point, Cyril was a competitive diver, swimmer and tennis player. The family lived in Longview Washington. where Cyril studied at the community college then during WWII his expenses were paid for medical school at University of Oregon by the GI bill. He met Stella Wescott Reid in Longview where she studied psychology at Whitman College. They were married on June 19th, 1948 in Longview, Washington. Their first son was born at the navel base in Oregon four years later while Cyril was in the naval reserves, following his internship at University of Washington. He went on to study biochemistry at Cornell University with further post graduate studies at the University of Philadelphia School of Medicine. In 1952, Cyril moved his family to New Orleans where he began his job at Tulane School of Medicine in New Orleans working with Dr. Schally on the discovery of the first brain peptide that controlled Endocrine functions. Dr. Schally received a noble prize in Medicine for the originality of the research. Cyril continued his life long fascination with Endocrine chemistry research, working with patients at Charity hospital, the largest free hospital in the world at that time. This hospital was the major attraction of New Orleans for the industrious doctor who found the plethora of diseases there riveting, Two more Bowers children were born and the family enjoyed many years together until eventually the sons moved out west to pursue careers in art, film, acting. The daughter stayed in New Orleans, working as an artist. Dr. Cyril wrote many papers, winning awards from the Endocrine society and establishing himself on various scientific boards. He pursued research and teaching, as well as, medical practices at the Tulane School of Medicine and held a position from the early 1960’s until 2004 as head of the Tulane Endocrine Department. Eventually, he became Professor Emeritus continuing to work at Tulane — pursuing his intellectual passions in Medicine and Science up until his passing at home on December 8th, 2020. Shortly before his passing, he had a minor stomach disorder for several days, which kept him from work. He appeared most likely to have had a heart attack on that day— which came as a terrible shock to the Bowers family, in spite of Cyril’s age of 96. His vitality—love of Life, of Science, of Art and most all of Humanity lasted up until his final hour. Cyril is survived by his wife Stella Reid and their three offspring: Cyril Yarling Bowers III with his wife Katherine Cassis in Emeryville, California, Susan Wescott Bowers and Genevieve Marie McKeown of New Orleans, Louisiana and Mark Compton Bowers of Abiquiu, New Mexico. A service and visitation are being held for Dr. Bowers at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home on December 21, 2020. We welcome all that would like to share in this event however because of Covid, sad to say there is a limit of 75 persons, all who must wear masks.