Watson Bowes, MD

Distinguished Achievement Award 2010

Watson Bowes, MD ’59, was presented with the Distinguished Achievement Award, which recognizes outstanding service benefiting the community, the practice of medicine, delivery of health care and the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

An obstetrics doctor, Bowes pioneered RH sensitization and published several papers on intrauterine transfusion early in his career. He was a faculty member at the University of Colorado and later moved to the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill where he was presented with several faculty and teaching awards. His colleague at UNC and fellow alumnus, William Droegmueller, recalls Bowes as "the best possible role model for students and residents I can think of. He was a devoted physician and a doctor’s doctor—literally, because so many physicians wanted him to deliver their babies."

Bowes, who is retired, still attends department conferences, reviews literature, contributes reviews to Faculty 1000 and continues to play a prominent role in the field of physician ethics, both locally and nationally.