Austin M. Cowan

{{Short description|American judge (1885–1949)}}

Austin M. Cowan (1885 – June 13, 1949) was a justice of the Kansas Supreme Court from June 9, 1948, to November 30, 1948.{{cite web |title=KS Courts - Historical Listing of Supreme Court Justices |url=https://www.kscourts.org/About-the-Courts/Supreme-Court/Historical-Listing-of-Supreme-Court-Justices |website=www.kscourts.org |accessdate=11 July 2020}}

Cowan was appointed to the court to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Allen Banks Burch on May 31, 1948.{{cite news |title=8 Jun 1948, 1 - The Manhattan Mercury at Newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/423510116/?terms=%22Austin%2BM.%2BCowan%22%2BBurch |accessdate=11 July 2020 |work=Newspapers.com |language=en}} This was a temporary appointment pending an election of Robert T. Price who completed the unexpired term of Burch.{{cite news |title=29 Nov 1948, 1 - The Manhattan Mercury at Newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/423578627/?terms=%22Austin%2BM.%2BCowan%22%2BRobert%2BPrice |accessdate=11 July 2020 |work=Newspapers.com |language=en}}

Prior to his short service to the supreme court he had practised law for 38 years in other forums.{{cite web |title=In Memoriam |url=https://washburnlaw.edu/alumni/awards/lifetime/_docs/2010hoch-homer-memoriam.pdf |website=Washburn University School of Law |accessdate=18 July 2020 |page=IX}}

He was born 1885 in Valley Falls, Kansas later moving to Parsons, Kansas with his family at the age of 12.{{cite book |last1=Lee |first1=R. Alton |title=Sunflower Justice: A New History of the Kansas Supreme Court |date=2014 |publisher=U of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0-8032-4841-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cv0oDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Austin++Cowan%22&pg=PA238|page=238 |accessdate=18 July 2020 |language=en}} He earned his law degree in 1911 from the University of Michigan Law School, and served during World War II in the navy.

He died June 13, 1949, at the age of 63, along with his wife Edwina in a plane crash near to the Wichita airport.{{cite news |title=Miami Daily News Record Archives, Jun 14, 1949, p. 1 |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/miami-daily-news-record-jun-14-1949-p-1/ |accessdate=11 July 2020 |work=NewspaperArchive.com |date=14 June 1949 |language=en}}{{cite news |title=13 Jun 1949, Page 1 - The Iola Register at Newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/4847597/?terms=Cowan |accessdate=11 July 2020 |work=Newspapers.com |language=en}}