Zelman Cowen

Sir Zelman Cowen  (7 October 1919 – 8 December 2011) was an Australian legal scholar and university administrator. He served as the 19th Governor-General of Australia from 1977 to 1982, under Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. He was the second Jewish person to be Governor-General of Australia (the first being Sir Isaac Isaacs). He also served as the Provost of Oriel College, Oxford from 1982 to 1990. Before this, he was the Vice-Chancellor of the University of New England (1966–1970) and the University of Queensland (1970–1977).

Cowen was born in Melbourne, Victoria to a Jewish family. His father from Belarus and his mother was Australian. In 1945, he married to Anna Wittner. The couple had four children.

Cowen had Parkinson's disease in his later years of life. He died on 8 December 2011 in Toorak, Victoria, at the age of 92.

References

Other websites

 Zelman Cowen tribute at the University of Sydney website

Category:1919 births
Category:2011 deaths
Category:Governors-general of Australia
Category:Australian Jews
Category:Australian lawyers
Category:Deaths from Parkinson's disease
Category:Disease-related deaths in Victoria (Australia)
Category:Order of Australia
Category:People from Melbourne
Category:Knights Bachelor
Category:Knights of the Order of St John
Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order