Charles S. Cowan oral history interview, 1957 October 30

Charles S. Cowan was the chief fire warden of the Washington Forest Fire Association (later the Washington Forest Protection Association). Charles Cowan was born in 1887 and grew up on a farm along the Campbell River on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. He was educated in the United Kingdom, at University of Edinburgh, where he studied Engineering, and at Oxford University, where he earned a bachelor of arts in forestry in1907, after which he went to India in and worked as a forester. In 1912, he returned home to British Columbia and became the assistant chief forester on the newly formed provincial forest service. During World War I, Cowan was assigned to France as an infantryman in the Canadian army. Cowan was wounded twice, and was awarded Britain's second-highest valor award, the Military Cross. In 1927, Cowan moved to Seattle to become the chief fire warden of the Washington Forest Fire Association. He managed the association for more than 30 years, a stint longer than any other in association history. Applying the expertise of a forester and the precise planning of an engineer, he launched the first comprehensive program of fire protection—that is, protecting land from fire without regard to ownership boundaries—in the Pacific Northwest. After retiring in 1958, he worked for six years as a consulting forester in Kirkland, Washington. He died on May 15, 1969. Source: World Forestry Center. "Biographical Portrait: Charles S. Cowan." Forest History Today (Spring 2012): 28-30.