COWGILL, LEWIS F. (2 July 1910-4 Oct. 1988), inventor and school teacher, he contributed to the fields of automation and educational television. Lewis was born in Lewisburg, Ohio, the son of William F. and Gula Schwartz Cowgill. He earned a bachelor's degree in education from Ohio State University in 1933 and began his teaching career the next year at Rawlings Junior High and Tremont Elementary schools in Cleveland. During WORLD WAR II he worked at the Cleveland Tank plant (see I-X CENTER) as a quality assurance engineer. After the war he embarked on a new career at Acme Billiard and Bowling Supply Co. where he invented an innovative type of automatic control for use in bowling alleys. His invention was a contribution to the automation of bowling alley operations led by the introduction of automatic pinspotters by AMF in 1946. Cowgill patented his invention and became president of the company.
In 1954 he returned to teaching science in the Parma school system, becoming an audiovisual aid specialist. He futhered his expertise in the field by receiving a Masters degree from Miami University in 1962 and returned to the Parma schools where he took the lead in founding station WTIP, the first high school-operated television station in greater Cleveland. After retirement in 1975 he collected and restored antique clocks. Cowgill married Carol L. Hand 14 June 1936, and they had 2 daughters, Janet Grambo of Indianapolis and Karen Borkenhagen of Lafayette, California, and a son, Charles F., of Houston. A resident of PARMA, Cowgill died at PARMA COMMUNITY GENERAL HOSPITAL and was cremated.