Dr. Chetwynd Bowling, caring physician

DR. CHETWYND E. Bowling thought nothing of treating prisoners as well as the cops who might have put some of them away.

"It was an interesting contrast," said his wife, the former Charis Crosse. "All his patients loved him."

Chet Bowling, a quiet, soft-spoken practitioner, was popular with all his patients, from the prisoners to the cops to the firefighters to the needy and elderly who crowded the city health clinics where he practiced.

He died Saturday of coronary artery disease. He was 72 and lived in Laverock, Montgomery County.

Chet also was a teacher and administrator. He worked in a program to tutor black medical students and started a program to treat the elderly.

He was born in Georgetown, Guyana, to Richard and Agatha Bowling. After high school there, he trained as a nurse, but his dream was always to be a doctor.

He moved to Puerto Rico to study at the Interamerican University. He then moved to the U.S. and enrolled at the University of Bridgeport, in Connecticut, where he received a bachelor's degree in chemistry. He entered Howard University Medical School in Washington in 1964 and received his medical degree in 1968.

After an internship at Howard University Hospital and a brief stint at Mount Wilson State Hospital outside Baltimore, he came to Philadelphia in 1970.

He took a residency in general internal medicine, with a sub-specialty in clinical pharmacology, at Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital, now Hahnemann University.

He became an assistant professor and director of the Flexible Curriculum Program to help black medical students. He also taught at Temple University Medical School and the Milton Hershey Medical Center.

But Chet's passion was always for treating patients. He began working at clinics of the Philadelphia Department of Health, first at the 5th District Clinic, at 20th and Berks streets, and then at the Strawberry Mansion Health Clinic, 29th and Dauphin streets, where he became clinical director along with caring for patients.

In 1970, he gave up the directorship and recommended a colleague, Dr. Kristi Johnson, for the job.

"He was truly a gentleman and a scholar," she said. "He was a warm-hearted and loving physician and a blessing to work with.

"He left me with big shoes to fill. He was just an all-'round good guy."

Johnson noted that Chet started the seniors-oriented Star 65 Program, in 1994, at the District 5 Clinic and then moved it to the Strawberry Mansion facility.

"His patients loved him so much, many of them followed him to Strawberry Mansion," Johnson said.

Chet enjoyed working with prisoners, at city prisons and at the state prison at Graterford. But he also was the physician for the Philadelphia Police and Fire Association.

He and his wife married in 1967. Charis is a part-time English teacher at the Community College of Philadelphia.

Chet was passionate about movies and the theater, and enjoyed an amateur show at Stagecrafters, in Chestnut Hill, as much as a Broadway production.

"He was always ready to go to the movies or the theater, but I had to drag him to parties," his wife said. "But once he got there, it was all right - as long as there was music. He liked to be the first on the dance floor.

"He didn't like parties where people just sat around eating and talking. He couldn't see the point."

Chet's brother, Richard "Frank" Sheridan Bowling, is a highly regarded British artist. He was the first black British artist elected a member of England's prestigious Royal Academy of Art.

Besides his wife and brother, he is survived by two sons, David and Kevin; another brother, Watson Bowling; and a grandson, Soli Baraka Bowling.

Services: 11 a.m. Monday at All Hallows Episcopal Church, Greenwood Avenue and Bent Road, Wyncote. *