Read Ted’s Tribute (PDF) from the Minnesota Coalition for Death Education and Support (MCDES)
Ted Bowman is an educator, author and consultant who specializes in change and transition, whether it occurs in families, an organization, or the community. His emphasis is on aiding people in utilizing their strengths and the resources of others in facing change and transition. Ted taught Family Education courses at the University of Minnesota from 1981 to 2014. He was an adjunct faculty member at the University of Saint Thomas from 2006 to 2019, teaching a graduate social work course on grief and loss. He was a guest faculty member for the School of New Learning at DePaul University in Chicago during summer 2009. And he also served as adjunct instructor at United Theological Seminary from 1989 through 1996
From 1985-1996 Ted was Senior Trainer for the Wilder Foundation, a large endowed human service agency, located in St. Paul, Minnesota. He assumed that position after directing educational programs at Family Service agencies in Charlotte, North Carolina and Minneapolis, Minnesota for the previous twelve years. He was an adjunct faculty member of the National Center for Family Literacy in Louisville, Kentucky from its beginning through 1992.
From 1976 until now, Ted Bowman has published more than 100 articles, chapters, booklets, and poems. He is also the author or co-author of resources published by Family Service America, Allina Hospitals and the 3M Company. His two booklets, Loss of Dreams: A Special Kind of Grief, published in 1994, and Finding Hope When Dreams Have Shattered, published in 2001, are widely used in grief and bereavement settings. Crossroads: Stories at the Intersections, a book of poems and essays was released in 2008. A book of poems by Minnesota poets addressing themes of loss and renewal, The Wind Blows, The Ice Breaks, was released in 2010; Ted and a colleague co-edited this volume. And he also co-edited It Starts With Hope, a book of images and words in celebration of the 30th anniversary of The Center for Victims of Torture. Ted’s most recent book is Ambiguous Parables: Poems and Prose of Loss and Renewal released in 2021.
Ted has served on many boards, local and national: he was a national advisory member of Practical Parenting Partnership, a Missouri program. He was a member of the board of directors for the National Association for Poetry Therapy from 1993 to 2008. Locally, he was a board member of the Minnesota Coalition for Death Education and Support from 2006 to 2012 and Minnesota-Uruguay Partners of the Americas. He also served a six-year term on the Committee on Ministry for the Minnesota Conference of the United Church of Christ from 2006-2012; and he was on the board for the Block Nurse program in his neighborhood community.
He is a frequent trainer, consultant, and speaker with many groups throughout Minnesota, across the United States, and other countries. In addition to regular trips to England and Scotland, where he has worked since 1989, Ted has also spoken or led workshops in Uruguay, Taiwan, Russia, Moldova, Ireland, Lithuania, and Canada.
Ted received the Minnesota Council on Family Relations Distinguished Service to Families Award in 1979; the Friend of the Network Award from the Minnesota Vocational Consumer and Family Education Network in 1988; and the St. Paul Civitan Club Clergy Award in 1994. He was a Minnesota delegate to the 1980 White House Conference on Families. In 2008, he received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the National Association for Poetry Therapy.
Ted is the father and stepfather of four children, and a grandfather of five “grand” children, four alive, one dead but alive in memory and love. His wife, Marge, died in July 2020. Their rich marriage of 41 years reminds of the gift of their love, even as he also grieves her death.
Ted Bowman 