Fellow Traveler ― A Twentieth Century American Life

Esther Rowland, a former Associate Dean at Barnard College, and wife of Lewis P. (Bud) Rowland M.D., former chair of the Department of Neurology at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, writes a memoir about her life, which has spanned much of the Twentieth Century. She has called the book: Fellow Traveler, a concept that has three meanings: first, her journey through life with her partner of 63 years, second: the political connotation of a political path she and Bud chose as members of the non-communist left; and third: a description of some of their more memorable travels. Esther starts with stories of her early childhood on West 86th Street in Manhattan, the family's move to Flushing to save money on rent in the time of the Great Depression, and then to the Grand Concourse, where she did most of her growing up. She tells about the public schools she attended and some of the problems the Jewish children had with their Irish teachers. She also describes her growing political awareness at the time of the Spanish Civil War, an awareness that blossomed into a strong "more than liberal" identity in her later years. Her desire to be both a scholar, and a wife and mother, becomes a major theme of the book. Esther recounts her search for the right husband; the events that led up to her meeting Bud; their twelve-week courtship and marriage; the brush with McCarthy-ites and how that turned out. She talks about starting a family in the post-Second World War economy and its effect on women who wished to work outside the home. Esther tells of her experience as pre-med advisor at the University of Pennsylvania and later at Barnard College. She describes how she approached her job in an era when places in professional schools that formerly discriminated against women and minorities were then accepting these applicants by order of the federal government. It's a story about changing old prejudices, prejudices that had been held by medical schools and law schools, by college faculty members, and by the potential applicants. Esther also reveals how the values that she and Bud shared, about equality and social justice, played into their day-to-day actions as citizens and as parents. She talks about the fight to integrate the public schools in Englewood, New Jersey, about the struggle to integrate neighborhoods, and keep them integrated. She describes how her two sons dealt with the draft to fight in a war they regarded as unnecessary and unjust. In her final chapters, Esther recounts the stories of two close friends who had remarkable tales to be told. And she ends the book with a description of five trips with Bud: to China; to India; to Cuba; to Marseille; and to the San Juan River in Utah. The book is presented as an account of a "normal life" to a European friend who witnessed the holocaust and the Communist take-over of the countries that bordered the Soviet Union. Esther's life was comparatively normal in this context, but as you read on you find that it has been far from being boring or humdrum. Esther Rowland, a former Associate Dean at Barnard College, and wife of Lewis P. (Bud) Rowland M.D., former chair of the Department of Neurology at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, writes a memoir about her life, which has spanned much of the Twentieth Century. She has called the book: Fellow Traveler a concept that has three meanings: first, her journey through life with her partner of 63 years, second: the political connotation of being a "fellow traveler", a political path she and Bud chose as members of the non-communist left; and third: a description of some of their more memorable travels. Esther starts with stories of her early childhood on West 86th Street in Manhattan, the family's move to Flushing to save money on rent in the time of the Great Depression, and then to the Grand Concourse, where she did most of her growing up. She tells about the public.

Esther Rowland was born in New York City in 1926. She grew up in the Bronx, attended Walton High School, City College of New York, and received her B.A. Degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1947, with a major in Political Science. She continued her studies at Columbia University in the Department of Public Law and Government, receiving the M.A. in 1948 and M.Phil in 1984. She taught in the Political Science Departments at City College, Mt. Holyoke College, and later at Drexel University. In 1952 she met and married Lewis P.(Bud)Rowland M.D., a marriage that has lasted 63 years so far. They have three children: Andy, Steve, and Judy (Joy). When Dr. Rowland became chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1967, the family moved to Philadelphia. In 1971 Esther was hired to share the job of Health Professions Advisor at the University of Pennsylvania. When Bud became chair of the Department of Neurology at Columbia University, the family returned to New York where Esther became the Pre-Professional Advisor at Barnard College and later Associate Dean of Studies. In 2014 her former pre-health-professional students at Barnard funded and named a scholarship in her honor. After retiring from Barnard in 1995, Esther studied for a certificate in Biomedical ethics at Columbia, became a volunteer ombudsman at the Isabella Nursing Home in Manhattan, took classes in American history at Columbia, and served as a volunteer proofreader for Monthly Review, a political journal. After taking a memoir-writing class at the 92nd Street Y, she started writing this book. Esther, Bud, and their children, and now their grandchildren, have identified themselves as "more than liberal". They have been active in the civil rights movement, the feminist movement, the movement against the war in Vietnam, and the movement for universal health-care in the United States. Their children and grandchildren continue in the ongoing struggle for social justice and equality.