Samuel Parkinson Cowley was born on 23 July 1899 in Franklin, Idaho, to Matthias F. and Luella Parkinson Cowley. He attended grade school in Preston, Idaho, then high school in Logan, Utah. He graduated from the Utah State Agricultural College in 1924, then George Washington Law School in 1929. He was employed with the Department of Justice under J. Edgar Hoover starting in 1929, being assigned to the Los Angeles area.
From the guide to the Samuel Parkinson Cowley papers, 1934, (J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah)