My name is John W. Cowden. In 1967, I received a Bachelor’s of Art degree with a major in Political Science from Southwest Missouri State College. Three years later, I received a Juris Doctor degree from the School of Law, University of Missouri (Columbia). Following military service, I began practicing law in the Kansas City area as a defense trial lawyer in civil cases. My career has included the preparation and defense of aerospace lawsuits around the country for several decades which has been both demanding and exciting.
During a recent interview about my legal career, a newspaper reporter with the Missouri Lawyer’s Weekly asked me several questions such as “Why did you become a lawyer?” and “Who influenced and mentored you during your pretrial years?” This caused me to focus on my time at MSU (then SMS) and at Mizzou Law School in the 1960s. As discussed below, I would not have even attended law school, let alone “become a lawyer” but for my positive experience in the Political Science Department in Springfield.
Upon enrolling as a freshman at Southwest Missouri State in the fall of 1963, I joined a student body of about 3,500 students. The campus consisted of a few buildings situated west of National Avenue. The basketball arena seated just 3,000 people. Virtually all classes were held in one of five buildings: Administration, Education, Science, Fine Arts, and
Classrooms. As I recall, the Political Science Department was located in the Classrooms Building. Regardless, it all seemed pretty large to a farm boy from Polk County who had recently graduated from high school with 16 other classmates in the senior class. Thinking I would likely pursue a career in sales or marketing, I chose to major in Business. Upon finding the business courses to be neither challenging nor interesting, I considered dropping out of school. Then an event occurred that changed everything for me.
Fortuitously, I was placed in Professor Frank Dinka’s PS 101 class. The skillful teaching methods of Professor Dinka and the subject matter of that course caused me to switch my major to Political Science in pursuit of a B.A. degree. This opened the door to classes on Constitutional Law, Business Law, and International Law which wetted my appetite to consider the Law as a career. I decided to take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) and, as they say, the rest is history.
The discipline and skills required to successfully obtain a Political Science based degree were similar to the requirements faced in law school. And the training received through vigorous classroom discussion and debate was very useful. One episode in the Constitutional Law course taught by Professor Brooks was particularly helpful. I loved the subject matter and made straight A’s on every test including the final examination. However, I received a B and requested a meeting with Professor Brooks to plead my case. He calmly explained that my grade was a B, in spite of straight A’s on all written exams, due to my inadequate class participation. Professor Brooks stressed the importance of a student’s participation in all classes to demonstrate an understanding and knowledge of subject matter and to improve the student’s ability to discuss and debate issues in a logical and civil matter. Thereafter, my engagement in classroom discussion and debate dramatically improved in all of my courses which proved to be extremely helpful when I entered law school. And yes, the “B” was changed to an “A” after I demonstrated to Professor Brooks my ability to discuss the issues in key constitutional law cases.
Certainly, I received an excellent legal education at the University of Missouri. However, I would not have even been there but for the fine instruction and mentoring provided by the professors in the Political Science Department at SMS.
Obviously, many things have changed on the Springfield campus during the past 50 years. Enrollment far exceeds 20,000 students, and impressive new buildings and facilities have been constructed on the expanded and beautiful campus. The menu of degrees and courses of study have reached the “University” level. But I am convinced that one constant over the years has been the excellent reputation and education provided by the Department of Political Science. Based upon my personal experience and my understanding of the current state of the department, those MSU students majoring in Political Science who may want to pursue a legal career are in the right place.
For this trial lawyer, it was the right place with the right people at the right time.