Juliana Harden Dowell
DOWELL, HENRY, FOSTER, HARDEN, ROWSEY, WIRT
Posted By: Sarah Fletcher (email)
Date: 7/13/2021 at 10:55:36
Juliana Harden Dowell, 78, passed away peacefully on July 2, 2021, at Bickford Assisted Living in Iowa City. Her Celebration of Life will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 11, 2021, at Zion Lutheran Church of Iowa City, 310 North Johnson Street. Masks are kindly requested. Lensing Funeral & Cremation Service is handling arrangements for Juliana.
Julie was born July 21, 1942, in Bradford, PA, the only child of James Henry and Alma Juliana Forster Harden. She was reared in Laurel, MS. Julie earned her Bachelor’s degree in the class of 1963 at the Mississippi State College State for Women (now Mississippi University for Women).
After marriage to Paul Wilson Dowell, their son, Adam Kirkland Dowell, was born in February, 1971. The marriage ended in divorce, but Julie and Paul remained friends for years until Paul’s death.
With a freshly-minted Ph. D. in Mathematics from the University of Tennessee in 1977, she joined the faculty of Atlantic Christian College (now Barton College) in Wilson, NC. Following this, she taught in the Mathematics Department at Eastern Carolina University in Greenville, NC.
Julie and her son, Adam, settled in Iowa City in 1991. Until her retirement in 2008, she was a computer programmer for the Physics Department at the University of Iowa. Julie was integral in programming data gathering for many satellites sent out for space exploration.
Music has been an important part of Julie’s life since she was 12 years old. She was the manager of a chorus and orchestra organization in Greenville, NC from 1988 to 1991. After moving to Iowa, she participated in the summer Berkshire Choral Society concerts, Eastern Iowa Quire, and sang alto in the Zion Lutheran Church Senior Choir. She was a member of the Music Study Club in Iowa City, supporting young high school and university musicians.
Julie was a model in volunteerism, offering many rides, her time, and talents for her church, the Quire, and other community non-profit organizations. She was generous to a fault, contributing to many animal rescue groups, schools for Native American children, and many other charities. She enjoyed listening to classical music, reading, and was an avid knitter. A little known fact is that she joined up to two pool leagues at one time. She was fiercely independent and, on first meeting, Julie was reserved and matter-of-fact. However, she had a great sense of humor and honest candor, never holding back from telling you what was on her mind. She was a generous, kind, and compassionate person. Her friends will miss her dearly!
She is survived by her son, Adam; her cousins including Capt. James “Jimmy” Rowsey, Steve Harden, and Andrea Wirt; and her constant feline companion, Rosie.
Contributions in Julie’s honor may be made to Zion Lutheran Church of Iowa City, The Quire, or the Iowa City Animal Shelter.
Lensing Funeral & Cremation Service
Johnson Obituaries maintained by Cindy Booth Maher.
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