Arnold Wilson Cowen

Who was Arnold Wilson Cowen?

Arnold Wilson Cowen, also known as "Wilson Cowen", was successively a trial commissioner, a trial judge, and the chief judge of the appellate division of the United States Court of Claims. Subsequently, he became a senior circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Wilson Cowen was born in Norse, not far from Clifton, in Bosque County, Texas. He excelled in high school and won a scholarship to the University of Texas at Austin. In 1928 he received his LL.B. from the University of Texas School of Law. He was in private practice of law in Dalhart, Texas from 1928 to 1934. He won election as a county judge of Dallam County, Texas, as a Democrat in 1934. Dallam County was hard hit by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, and Cowen found himself involved in federal programs to ameliorate conditions in the region. He was appointed in 1938 to the Farm Security Administration and served with in several roles until 1942.

He became a trial commissioner at the Court of Claims in 1942, but took a leave of absence the following year to serve as Assistant War Food Administrator. He was a Special assistant to the U.S. secretary agriculture in 1945.