Former PSU official Larry Cowan dies

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July 18, 2008

Coach, AD, fundraiser extraordinare at Plattsburgh State

Anonymous The Press Republican Fri Jul 18, 2008, 06:54 AM EDT

PLATTSBURGH -- Larry Cowan, the former Plattsburgh State men's basketball coach who went on to raise millions of dollars for the betterment of three colleges and later became an advocate for organ donation after a kidney transplant extended his own life, died of an apparent heart attack in Warrensburg, Mo. on Thursday. He was 53.

¶He is survived by his wife, Margie, and two daughters, Casey and Alexis.

Word of Cowan's passing spread quickly, drawing shock from the North Country to South Florida. Cardinals coach Tom Curle had the grim task of informing several dozen members of the Plattsburgh basketball community of the passing, telling them in an e-mail, "one never knows the best way to communicate this tragic news."

¶"This is a very sad day for the basketball program and Plattsburgh State as a whole," Curle wrote. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to Larry's family. He will be missed."

¶H. Lawrence Cowan graduated from Ithaca College in 1981 and immediately got into coaching, beginning his career as an assistant at Utica College. Six years later, after earning his master's degree from Syracuse -- Utica College's parent school -- Cowan replaced Doug Riley as Plattsburgh's basketball coach, beating Albany in his first season to highlight a 12-13 campaign.

¶Cowan coached the Cardinals for 10 seasons, going 114-136, with one NCAA Division III tournament berth and one ECAC tournament appearance. He was honored by the Plattsburgh City Police in 1997 for "exemplary community service." Under Cowan's watch, the Cardinal basketball program raised thousands of dollars for the city's police D.A.R.E. program.

¶He slid into the athletic director's chair at Plattsburgh after that 1996-97 season, then became assistant vice president for student affairs before turning most of his efforts to fundraising -- something he proved to be exceptional at.

¶Under his watch, giving to the Cardinal athletic department increased 400 percent, and total donations to Plattsburgh's annual campaign more than doubled. He also was instrumental in securing the funds needed to build Chip Cummings Field, the first-rate baseball facility that Cowan proudly touted as the largest gift Plattsburgh State ever received from a living graduate.

¶Cowan left Plattsburgh in 2003 and joined the staff at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., and the school's coffers immediately saw the benefits. He secured a $1.5 million gift that created an endowed professor program -- Lynn's first ever -- and $620,000 from the parent of a student at the private school to build a learning center.

¶In only four years at Lynn, Cowan left a giant impact.

¶"He's just a passionate person. At Plattsburgh and at Lynn, he believed in what he was doing. He was passionate about his work and people and he loved athletics," Greg Malfitano, Lynn's senior vice president for administration, said shortly after hearing the news of Cowan's death Thursday. "Most people would go away and have fun vacations. His fun was going to his own camps and watching kids."

¶But as Cowan's professional successes grew, his personal health was failing him.

¶On the eve of the start of Chanukah in 2006, Cowan received a kidney, donated by his sister Laurie. The procedure took place at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, a place where Cowan's sister urged him to seek treatment for kidney disease many years earlier. But the disease, even with medication, continued to progress for many years, and eventually doctors convinced Cowan that the transplant was absolutely necessary.

¶"I think we have a responsibility to advocate for organ donation from this point forward," Cowan said in the days after the procedure.

¶Cowan suffered from a kidney disease called glomerulonephritis, which causes the blood vessels in the organ to swell and prevents the kidneys from filtering the body's waste properly. But after the transplant, he said he felt strong again, and last year became vice president of advancement and executive director of the university foundation at Central Missouri, where he again spearheaded campaigns to raise millions of dollars.

¶Heart issues, though, began plaguing Cowan in recent years, even necessitating him to return to Boca Raton for occasional treatment.

¶"You go through these tragedies and try to put your arms around them and rationalize it, but he was far too young to go," Malfitano said. "Such a great guy."