Former Indiana Gov. Otis R. Bowen dead at 95

INDIANAPOLIS -- Otis R. Bowen, who overhauled Indiana's tax system as governor before helping oversee the federal response to the burgeoning AIDS epidemic during President Ronald Reagan's second term, has died. He was 95.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said in a statement Sunday that Bowen died Saturday at a nursing home in Donaldson, a community about 25 miles south of South Bend that is near Bowen's hometown of Bremen. He didn't disclose the cause of death.

"Governor Otis R. Bowen's contributions to the life of this state and nation are incalculable, and I mark his passing with a sense of personal loss. His story is as inspiring as it is uniquely Hoosier," Pence said.

Bowen, who was affectionately known as "Doc" for his pre-public service life as a family doctor in Bremen, was first elected to office in 1952 as Marshall County's coroner. His political rise would eventually lead to the governor's office, which he held from 1973 until 1981.

In December 1985, with the Reagan administration facing criticism over its response to the AIDS epidemic, Bowen was appointed to be secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In that role, Bowen stressed educating the public about the dangers of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Among his efforts was a mailing to 107 million households that he and Surgeon General C. Everett Koop arranged that offered advice about how to avoid contracting HIV, the precursor to AIDS, including the use of condoms.

Bowen was born Feb. 26, 1918, near the northern Indiana town of Rochester. He received bachelor's and medical degrees from Indiana University and joined the Army Medical Corps in 1943. His World War II service included going ashore with the first waves of Allied troops during the invasion of Okinawa in 1945.

Following the war, Bowen started a family medical practice in Bremen, a small town about 20 miles south of South Bend, which he continued for 25 years.

Bowen had four children with his first wife, Beth, who died of cancer in 1981.

He later married Rose Hochstetler, a widow from Bremen, in 1981. They moved back to Bremen in 1989 after his time in Washington, but she died of cancer two years later.

Bowen was married in 1993 to Carol Mikesell, who had been a patient of his some 30 years earlier, a time during which he delivered her two children.