Bowen, Georgene E., 1898-1984

Georgene Esther Bowen (1898-1984): Universalist missionary to Japan.

Georgene E. Bowen (1898-1984) was born in South Charlestown, New Hampshire, and moved to Bellows Fall, Vermont, in 1902. She attended the Northeastern Conservatory of Music in Boston. Bowen served as a Universalist missionary to Japan from 1925 to 1937. Upon her return to the United States, she served as an assistant head of Jane Addams's Hull House in Chicago. She was later appointed head of a settlement house in New York City. Bowen became very active in the establishment of clubs for the aged, and established her first club in Philadelphia in 1946. In 1963 she returned to Boston after having established 148 clubs. She was then invited back to Japan to train workers, and this training resulted in the establishment of many more clubs for the elderly.