Anneliese Regina Bowlby

Dr. Anneliese Bowlby led a remarkable life. Born in in 1935 in Allenstein, Ostpreussen, in northeast Germany, one of her vivid early memories was as a nine-year-old refugee, with her mother and younger brother, being chased across northern Germany by advancing Russian artillery. Throughout her life, she never liked the sound of thunder. Her family was not reunited until after the war, when they moved to Neumuenster, where she grew up, and where her brother remained until his death last year.

At an early age, her teachers identified her as an exceptional student, and she recognized that her brain would be her key to a better life. She studied psychology at the University of Kiel, where she received her master's degree in 1961. She won a Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Michigan where she met her future husband, George Bowlby, an American studying political science. They were married in 1962, and she completed her Ph.D. in 1968. Because she was on a student visa and her studies were over, she and George left to go to Bonn, Germany, where she worked in Public Opinion research, then in Market Research in an American firm in Hamburg. She re-entered the United States in 1971 and became a US citizen in 1975. Anneliese taught at Ferris State and held a tenured position at Central Michigan University, where she stayed until her retirement in 1997. She and George divorced but remained friends and might have remarried, but for an unfortunate accident that claimed his life.

The trauma of having to live through a war, as well as the loss of one's friends, school, and home were factors that contributed to her disconnect with her family. But she retained a strong sense of her German identity, and her friends always looked forward to her emotional performance of “Silent Night” in German at the University Commons annual Holiday Sing. She read her “Spiegel” assiduously each week and followed the exploits of German competitors in the annual Tour de France bicycle race. Happily, she was able to begin rebuilding her relationship with her brother late in his life, and the cordial communications continued with his three children, Anneliese’s niece and two nephews, her “German family.”

Anneliese was a beloved mentor to many current and recent University of Michigan students. Plans for the University Commons celebration in her honor include a cadre of students who will be video-recording informal comments by which Anneliese’s German family will become better acquainted with University Commons and how much Anneliese meant to the three generations of people here. Donations in honor of Anneliese Bowlby can be made to Fund # 700476: University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance Development Office Sterns Building 2005 Baits Drive Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2075