Ross E. Cowey ’56

Ross E. Cowey ’56, of Bethesda, Md.; Apr. 15, of complications from pneumonia. He received a master’s from the University of Pennsylvania and served four years in the U.S. Navy following his graduation from Brown. In 1963, he began a career as a military intelligence analyst with the CIA and was involved with intelligence reports on Soviet military activity in Cuba in the wake of the missile crisis. He later was an analyst in the CIA’s Office of National Estimates, was branch chief in the CIA’s Office of Strategic Research, and was director of the Office of Strategic Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He was an advisor with negotiations pertaining to the banning of the deployment of weapons of mass destruction. He also served in a liaison capacity with British military intelligence in London from 1972 to 1974. He retired in 1990 as executive assistant to the executive director of the CIA and received the agency’s career intelligence medal. In retirement he accompanied his wife, who was an official of the U.S. Agency for International Development, on her assignments to Senegal and the Dominican Republic. He enjoyed sailing, hiking, and walking along the Potomac River. He is survived by his wife, Colette; four children; three stepchildren; 12 grandchildren and step-grandchildren; two sisters; and nieces and nephews.