Joseph R. Bowen (April 22, 1950 – March 8, 2022) was an American politician from Kentucky. Bowen was born in

Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...

and graduated from the Daviess County High School in Owensboro, Kentucky in 1968. He then graduated from

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

, in 1972, with a bachelor's degree in business administration. He worked for his family's business, the Bowen Tire Company, in Owensboro. Bowen was first elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives, representing the 13th district as a Republican from 2005 until 2007. He was defeated for re-election in 2006 by Democrat Jim Glenn. He was then a member of the

Kentucky State Senate The Kentucky Senate is the upper house of the Kentucky General Assembly. The Kentucky Senate is composed of 38 members elected from single-member districts throughout the Commonwealth. There are no term limits for Kentucky Senators. The Kentuc ...

from the 8th District, from 2011 to 2019. Bowen did not seek re-election in 2018, citing health issues as well as his support for term limits. He died at a hospital in Lexington, Kentucky on March 8, 2022, at the age of 71, from complications of a heart attack he had the previous week.

References

1950 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American legislators Businesspeople from Kentucky Republican Party Kentucky state senators Republican Party members of the Kentucky House of Representatives Politicians from Evansville, Indiana Politicians from Owensboro, Kentucky University of Kentucky alumni {{Kentucky-politician-stub