06/22/2026
Rev. Clarence Bowman and his brother, Dr. Roger Bowman, faithfully served within the African American church and the Church of the Nazarene for decades. Their influence is easy to find from West Virginia to California, reaching through multiple Bible colleges like Nazarene Bible College and through local congregations they built up and expanded in communities where they lived. Nazarene Bible College is pleased to announce the formation of an endowment fund in their honor, The Clarence and Roger Bowman Legacy Scholarship.
The Legacy
Clarence’s son, Ed Bowman, remembers his father working as a pastor and college professor while also washing trucks for the local bakery – a display of his total dedication to ministry. Clarence defined this dedication as freedom, saying, “Holiness means freedom; freedom from a love for and an attraction to things that cannot bring satisfaction and fulfillment.”
“I remember from my youngest years,” says Roger’s daughter Suzanne Williams, “hearing [my father] say, ‘Your walk talks and your talk walks, but your walk talks further than your talk walks.’ His walk still talks in this scholarship to support people coming into ministry, his great passion.”
Read more here: https://nbc.edu/news/42133/legacy-of-faith-and-service-the-enduring-impact-of-clarence-and-roger-bowman/