Kent Bowden, Osteopathic Surgeon – Class of 1997

by Melissa Keeley, Director of Development

When COVID-19 first arrived in Michigan in March of 2020, things came to a halt for Kent Bowden (’97). Working as an Osteopathic Surgeon in Cadillac, MI, Kent’s hospital, like hospitals across the country, had to cancel all elective surgeries. Kent says for him and his colleagues, this meant shifting their focus to preparing for an influx of medical patients and determining the safest way to reopen for surgeries. Working together, they made significant and important changes to how they provide medical care, and created protocols that protect both patients and medical professionals. During this time, Kent, and his wife Becky, faced the added challenge of navigating remote learning with their five children, ranging in age from 5 to 20 years old.

Although COVID-19 presented many new and unexpected professional and personal obstacles, Kent says being able to help others when emergencies arise is part of what drew him to being a doctor. “I have no question I am doing what I should be doing, I love meeting people in crisis and helping them through it.”

That passion for helping others was encouraged while Kent was at LCS, and he credits LCS parents Daryl and Ella Smith, an anesthesiologist and pharmacist, with helping inspire his interest in pursuing a medical career that uses his gifts and talents to help others. In fact, after graduating from medical school Kent was able to join the Smiths on a medical mission trip to Ghana where they opened a hospital and performed surgeries. Throughout his training, and now in his work as a surgeon, Kent continues to lean on the lessons he learned at LCS to “use the gifts God has given him not for his own glory, but for God’s glory.”