Obituary of Charles Ernst Boewe

Charles Ernst Boewe, 91, was born March 11, 1924, in West Salem, Illinois. He was the son of Fred and Susie (Walters) Boewe, of West Salem. He died January 1, 2016, in Pittsboro, North Carolina, having been a Pittsboro resident for over 20 years, first at Fearrington Village and then at Twin Rivers. Boewe is survived by Mary (Scurrah) Boewe, his wife of 65 years, also a resident of Pittsboro; by daughters Abigail (Boewe) Burnett of Kingston, Arkansas and Emily (Boewe) Oliver and husband Doug, of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, and by grandchildren Charles Oliver and Evelyn Oliver, also of Hopkinton. He was preceded in death by his parents and his brother, John Boewe. Charles Boewe graduated from high school in Albion, Illinois then served in the U.S. Army during World War II as a medic in training. Following the war he graduated from Syracuse University, in Syracuse, New York and went on to receive graduate degrees, including a Ph.D. in literature, from the University of Wisconsin, where he also taught. From 1964 to 1980 he served as the Executive Secretary of the United States Educational Foundation (the Fulbright Foundation) in Iran, India and Pakistan. He was also a Fulbright scholar in Norway and South India, and helped establish the American Studies Research Center in Hyderabad, India. Following his return to the United States Boewe was a scholar in residence at Transylvania University, in Lexington, Kentucky, before retiring to Louisville, Kentucky, then moving to Pittsboro in 1992. As an independent scholar he published articles and books on a variety of subjects, including Prairie Albion; An English Settlement in Pioneer Illinois. His most notable research and publications concerned the life, work and letters of early botanist C.S. Rafinesque, for which in 2014 the International Association for Plant Taxonomy awarded him its Stafleu Medal. He also published a memoir about growing up in West Salem, titled The Town on the Square; Portrait of a Vanished World (2008) and was working on a memoir about his career in educational exchange when he died.