Lois Rich McCoy Cowan
Lois Cowan, a founding member of 10964, died November 17, 2013 in her home at TLC Farm on Islesboro Island in Maine. Her husband and partner of twenty eight years, James Terry Cowan, and two daughters, Jill McCoy and Elana Kehoe, were at her side. Other children in her large family include a son, Brent McCoy of Reno, Nevada; an adopted daughter, Stacy Smith of Lexington, Kentucky; and three stepsons, Brendon Cowan of Friday Harbor, Washington, Matthew Cowan of Portland, Oregon, and David Cowan of Melbourne, Florida. Her eldest son, Mark Rich McCoy, died in 1992 in an automobile accident, leaving a hole in Lois’s heart that she was never able to fill…although six grandchildren came close.
Lois (then McCoy) was always proud of her association with the Palisades newsletter and often kept track of people and events in and about Snedens Landing. She and James frequently detoured from their itineraries to drive through the neighborhood while she happily told him local stories and he happily listened.
Lois was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1941, and at an early age moved with her family to Hollywood, Florida. She worked with her father in his floor-covering business before striking out on her own while still in her teens, eventually earning both a Bachelors of Science and a Masters degree from Goddard College. Over the years, Lois lived in Arlington, Virginia, Snedens Landing, Woods Hole, and Camden, Maine before settling on a saltwater farm in Islesboro and a converted tramp steamer in Key West.
Her approach to work was always to figure out what she liked and then find a way to get paid for doing it. She ran as a call EMT in Camden and worked as a paramedic on Islesboro and with the Maine Wilderness Rescue Team. She designed and supervised the reconstruction of historic properties, including TLC Farm and The Steeples in Camden, managed political campaigns, and served on local boards and land trusts, including founding The 300 Committee of Falmouth, Massachusetts for which she was first Treasurer.
Lois was a published author in several genres: children’s books (the Emergency Rescue and Byte Brothers series); popular nonfiction women’s studies (Late Bloomer and Millionairess); and with her husband, the Writers' Guide to Emergency Rescue. She ghost-wrote Levi Johnston's Deer in the Headlights: My Life In Sarah Palin's Crosshairs. At the time of her death, Lois and Terry were at work on Behind the Pulled Curtain, a patient’s guide to learning from and surviving hospital-based emergency medical mistakes.
Lois’s zest for adventure was unbounded. She and Terry flew medical evacuations in the Caribbean and worked Phish concerts, the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Indianapolis 500. They rounded up cattle in New Mexico, organized on Islesboro what was at the time the biggest single-day CPR certification course, drove cross-country along historic routes, and held the course record at the National Toboggan Championships. Lois also talked her way into working with Nobel Laureate Albert Szent-Gyorgy in Woods Hole. This was late in the professor’s career, and Lois, with little direct scientific experience but lots of chutzpah, essentially administered his laboratory and controlled the posse of Fellows doing research in his lab at the Marine Biological Laboratory. Still, she always found time to mentor her kids and grandkids and to help friends and strangers.
Donations in her memory may be made to any local or progressive cause of the donor’s choice or to the Islesboro Ambulance Association, PO Box 277, Islesboro, Maine, 04848, for the support of advanced emergency medical training for year-round island residents. When spring comes to TLC Farm, family and friends will gather to celebrate her life.