Thomas Jefferson Cowie Rear Admiral, United States Navy

Thomas Jefferson Cowie (15 February 1857 – 16 July 1936) was a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy whose active-duty career included serving as Navy Paymaster General and Chief of the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts (BuSandA). Following his retirement, he headed the Navy’s Liberty Loans program and was secretary-treasurer of the Navy Mutual Aid Association.

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Cowie was born at Montezuma, Iowa in 1857. He served as engineer’s yeoman in USS Alliance from 8 January 1877 to 19 October 1878, then enlisted in the Navy 21 October 1878 at Constantinople.

He was commissioned as assistant paymaster from 16 June 1880, rising to the rank of Rear Admiral and the position of Paymaster General and Chief of the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts 1 July 1910.

Rear Admiral Cowie was awarded the Navy Cross for his valuable services in connection with the Liberty Loans of World War I. Retired from the Navy 15 February 1921, he was ordered to special duty in charge of the Navy Liberty Loan section of the Navy Allotment Office in March 1921, and in June 1923 was ordered to additional duty as secretary-treasurer of the Navy Mutual Aid Association, a position which he held until his death 16 July 1936 in Washington, D.C.

The destroyer USS Cowie (DD-632) was named in his honor.


COWIE, THOMAS JEFFERSON
Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy
U.S. Navy Department
Date of Action: World War I

Citation:

The Navy Cross is presented to Thomas Jefferson Cowie, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy, for exceptionally meritorious service in a duty of great responsibility in connection with naval subscriptions to the third, fourth, and fifth Liberty loans. Through his able, vigorous and indefatigable efforts the naval subscriptions to these loans reached a total far beyond what could have been anticipated and placed the Navy easily in the lead of all other groups with which it could properly be compared.

COWIE, THOMAS J
R/ADM US NAVY

  • DATE OF DEATH: 07/16/1936
  • BURIED AT: SECTION WEST  SITE 118-D WH
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

COWIE, SUSAN W/O THOMAS J

  • DATE OF DEATH: 07/06/1938
  • BURIED AT: SECTION WEST.  SITE 116-D (W
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
  • WIFE OF TJ COWIE, REAR ADMIRAL US NAVY

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