Artist, writer, graphic designer, entrepreneur, civic volunteer, World War II veteran, husband, father, grandfather great-grandfather: Q. Patric Rowley ’50 was inspiring in many roles and found success in both business and the arts.
After U.S. Navy service as an aircrew member of a patrol bomber, Rowley returned home to study at the University of Wichita. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English language and literature, and embarked on an advertising and public relations career at KG&E and later in New York City at Ebasco Services.
He returned to Wichita in 1959 to work at McCormick Armstrong printing company before launching his own Communication Arts Associates. Through CAA and then Patric Rowley & Partners, he succeeded in establishing an advertising and graphic design clientele that included some of the best known companies in the nation.
As a painter, he gained recognition through numerous awards at regional and national competitive exhibitions. An arts activist and educator, he was an art instructor at WSU and KSU.
Among his many volunteer commitments was serving as a WSUAA board member. In 2000, at his 50-year reunion, he told his classmates: “Personally, I will always remember how wonderful it has been to share the same college class with you. Your presence has made this special day an even more special one. It fills me with a quiet and joyful sense of contentment, like a sailor home from the sea.”
Rowley died Sept. 19, 2016 in Wichita.
