Charles A. “Chick” Fowler, Jr. was 30-year member of the physics department faculty at Pomona College and a specialist in research on magnetic domains.

Fowler was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on April 23, 1912 and earned his B.A in mathematics in 1933 and his M.S. in physics in 1934 from the University of Utah, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi. He went on to earn his Ph.D in physics in 1940 from the University of California, Berkeley where he also taught from 1939 to 1946. Fowler joined the Pomona College faculty in 1947 as an associate professor in physics. In 1950, he received promotion to full professor and served as chair of the physics department. In 1960, Fowler received the Wig Distinguished Professor Award for excellence in teaching, followed by a National Science Foundation Faculty Fellowship grant during a sabbatical year from 1967 to 1968. With this grant, Dr. Fowler studied the utilization of Pomona College’s IBM System/360 digital computer in an effort to understand its usage in all phases of undergraduate physics education. Dr. Fowler retired from Pomona College in 1977.

Aside from his position at Pomona College, Fowler served as an editorial reviewer for the American Journal of Physics; was a National Science Foundation senior postdoctoral fellow at the University of Grenoble in France; was a member of the Committee of Physics Faculties; and served as president of the California section of the American Association of Physics Teachers. He was also a member of both the American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Under the sponsorship of the US Office of Naval Research, Fowler helped to develop a magnet-optic method of analyzing the magnetic structure of materials. His research and the method became standard in all magnetic laboratories and played a significant role in the development of high-speed computers.

Dr. Charles Fowler passed away on May 24, 1999 at the age of 87.