University of Portland
Bowles was born 28 March 1922 in Portland, Oregon. He attended high school in Portland, and then the University of Portland. While a student at the University of Portland, he climbed Mount Hood. At the top he met Barbara Pitts, who was a student at Willamette University. They married in 1943. That same year, Bowles graduated magna cum laude from the University of Portland. He served in the United States Navy during the latter part of World War II. Then returned to the University of Portland, where he received the school's first Master of Science degree in 1947.