John Richard Fowler

Who was John Richard Fowler?

John Richard "Dick" Fowler was a local politician in Memphis, Texas who was appointed by two different governors of Texas to regional or statewide agencies. He was a registered pharmacist.

Fowler was born in Sayre in Beckham County, Oklahoma, to John A. and Ruth Garrett Fowler. He graduated from high school in Petersburg, Texas. Fowler was a veteran of the United States Navy. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy from the University of Texas at Austin, and for most of his career, was a partner with his father and brother in the Fowler Drug Company in Memphis, which has since been sold.

In 1960, Governor Price Daniel, Sr., named Fowler to the board of commissioners of the Red River Authority of Texas, a state conservation agency based in Wichita Falls a position he held until 1967. At that time Governor John B. Connally, Jr., named Fowler to the Texas State Board of Pharmacy, an independent regulatory agency, where he served until 1973. He was the board president from 1969 to 1970.

In 1977, Fowler was elected to the Memphis Independent School District trustees. He served until 1983, when he opted not to seek another term.

In 2003, he was elected to his first two-year term on the Memphis City Council. He was re-elected in 2005, and was running unopposed in 2007 at the time of his death.