Editing J. Earle Bowden

{{Infobox Biography
| subject_name   =J. Earle Bowden
| image_name     =
| image_size     =225px
| image_caption  =
| date_of_birth  =[[September 12]], [[1928]]
| place_of_birth =Altha, Florida
| date_of_death  =
| place_of_death =
| occupation     =Journalist<br/>Management, ''[[Pensacola News Journal|News Journal]]''
| religion       =
| spouse         =Mary Louise Clark Bowden
| parents        =
| children       =Steven Earle Bowden<br/>Randall Clark Bowden
| signature      =EarleBowdenSignature.png
| signaturesize  =150px
}}
'''Jesse Earle Bowden''' (b. [[September 12]], [[1928]]) is the editor emeritus of the ''[[Pensacola News Journal]]'' and a local historian and preservationist.

Born in Altha, Florida, Bowden attended Florida State University, where he studied journalism and wrote for the ''Florida Flambeau'' newspaper, before joining the U.S. Air Force. He was a military journalist stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho during the Korean War, after which he moved to Pensacola to begin his journalism career at the ''[[Pensacola News Journal]]'' on [[September 30]], [[1953]].

Initially a sports writer until 1958, Bowden replaced [[Marion T. Gaines]] as editor of the ''News Journal'''s editorial page in [[1965]] and served as editor-in-chief and vice president of the paper from [[1966]] to [[1997]]. He was also the paper's main political cartoonist for decades, caricaturing local figures in a distinctive [[Wikipedia:hedcut|hedcut]] style inspired by [[Wikipedia:William Hogarth|William Hogarth]] and [[Wikipedia:Thomas Nast|Thomas Nast]]. [[Andy Marlette]] took over as the main cartoonist in [[2007]], but Bowden remains a columnist and occasional cartoonist for the opinion section. Staff at the University of West Florida's Pace Library are in the process of archiving and [http://archives.uwf.edu/Bowden/ digitizing many of Bowden's original cartoon drawings].  He has taught journalistic writing since [[1983]] at the [[University of West Florida]], which awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in [[1985]].

As editor of the ''News Journal'', Bowden began campaigning in [[1965]] to establish the [[Gulf Islands National Seashore]], which was authorized on [[January 8]], [[1971]], and signed into law by President Nixon. For his efforts, Bowden was named an Honorary Park Ranger by the Secretary of the Interior in {{date needed}}. State Road 399 on [[Santa Rosa Island]], which connects eastern [[Pensacola Beach]] to [[Navarre Beach]], was named [[J. Earle Bowden Way]] in [[1998]]. Much of the road was washed away in [[Hurricane Ivan]].

Along with [[Pat Dodson]] and [[Mary Turner Rule Reed]], Bowden helped to establish the [[Seville Square Historic District]] in [[1963]]. He was a charter trustee of the [[Historic Pensacola Preservation Board]] when it was formed in [[1967]] and has served as chairman since [[1982]]. He became president of the organization when it was transferred to the University of West Florida and renamed [[West Florida Historic Preservation, Inc.]] (WFHPI) in [[1991]]. The [[Bowden Building]], headquarters of WFHPI, is named for him.

He currently lives in the [[Cordova Park]] area.

==Bibliography==
*''Florida in the Civil War: 1860 Through Reconstruction'', 1961. With Alan Rick and other members of the Civil War Round Table of Pensacola.
*''Always the Rivers Flow: Deliberately a Memoir, Essays on West Florida Heritage by a Pensacola Newspaper Editor'', 1979.
*''Iron Horse in the Pinelands: Building West Florida's Railroad: 1881-1883'', 1982. Virginia Parks, editor.
*''Pensacola: Florida's First Place City'', 1989. Photographs by Gordon Norman Simmons and Sandra L. Johnson.
*''When You Reach September: An Editor's West Florida Essays and Other Episodic Echoes'', 1990.
*''The Write Way: Editor's Guidebook for Students of Writing'', 1990.
*''Emerald Coast Review Fifth Annual Collection: West Florida Authors and Artists'', 1993. Co-editor with Donna Freckmann.
*''Gulf Islands: The Sands of All Time, Preserving America's Largest National Seashore'', 1994.
*''Emerald Coast Review Sixth Collection: West Florida Authors and Artists'', 1995. Co-editor with Seldon Pierce.
*''Earle Bowden: Drawing From an Editor's Life. More than Forty Three Years of Cartoons, Caricatures and Illustrations, Pensacola News Journal, 1950s-1990s'', 1996.

[[Category:Historians|Bowden, Earle]] [[Category:Newspaper executives|Bowden, Earle]] [[Category:Pensacola News Journal|Bowden, Earle]] [[Category:Street namesakes]]