Richard "Nick" Nichols Cowell

Richard (Nick) Nichols Cowell died on May 23, 2025 at the age of 90. The cause was complications from dementia.

An unfailing optimist, Nick appreciated the joys and opportunities that came to him over his 90 years. He had a colleague with the email name "luckylife," and was sorry that she'd beaten him to it since it summed up his life in a single phrase. He claimed that his parents got him off to a good start in life, and his beloved wife Priscilla did the rest. He often said that nobody is perfect, but also that Priscilla was perfect for him as she steered the family with her strength, intelligence and love. He delighted in his two sons, Christopher and Nicholas, their wives, and his grandsons Soren and Kirin, and he celebrated their many achievements.

Raised in small towns in Missouri and Texas, Nick discovered broader intellectual horizons during high school when he left home to study at Choate in Connecticut and Shrewsbury in England. He later earned BA, MA, and doctoral degrees in history and education from Harvard. A stint in US Army intelligence was a brief but significant event in his life.

His passion for education called him to teach all kinds of students: graduate and undergraduate students at Harvard, Wheelock College, Portland State University, and Pacific University; high school students in Turkey, Massachusetts, and Oregon; and marginalized teens in Portland at the New Avenues for Youth outreach program. Working as an educational consultant for organizations like USAID, the Ford Foundation, and the World Bank, he set up schools and trained teachers in Chile, Samoa, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal, and Namibia. For shorter periods, he consulted with the governments of Zambia, Ethiopia, Ecuador, Egypt, Liberia, Guatemala, and Venezuela. In America, he worked with multiple educational foundations--at one point even writing for Sesame Street at the Children’s Television Workshop.

In retirement, he found great joy in participating in spiritual, cultural and service opportunities at Portland's Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. He helped organize their classical music concerts, served as a listener in the "Listening Post" ministry for improving the mental health of homeless people, and worked for the extensive food outreach programs that were co-coordinated by his wife.

Nick was predeceased by Priscilla (2025) and his son Nicholas (2016). He is survived by his half-brother Christian Hershberger, his son Christopher Cowell, and grandsons Soren and Kirin Cowell-Shah. His ashes will be placed in the Memorial Garden at Trinity, joining those of his wife and son.

Nick was a happy man, a devoted husband, and a terrific father. He was kind to everyone and deliberately oblivious to social status markers. He believed in the importance of collecting experiences, not things. He had a gentle courtliness that came from growing up in the 40s and 50s, but also a finely developed love for the off-kilter, the absurd, the underdog. He appreciated just about everything life had to offer, from Shakespeare to Gilbert and Sullivan to Scuba diving. He loved to laugh and joke. He had a lucky life.