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Willard L. Bowman was born August 18, 1919, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He served in the U.S. Navy between 1938 and 1945, and in 1950, he moved to Î÷Ê©Ö±²¥APP, Alaska, where he worked as a laborer and was an active union member, later becoming a labor management consultant. He was also an active member of the NAACP in Î÷Ê©Ö±²¥APP. Willard Bowman was appointed the first Director of the Alaska Human Rights Commission by Governor Egan in 1963. He served in that capacity until 1970, when he ran for the State House of Representatives. He was elected to the House in three consecutive elections (1970, 1972, and 1974). A member of the Democratic Party, he maintained a consistently liberal and humanitarian record. Representative Bowman was one of the first Black Americans elected to the Alaska Legislature. He died of cancer on December 3, 1975.