Part of Rochester 'royalty,' brother and sister died within weeks of each other (2024)

ROCHESTER — They were practically Rochester royalty, descendants to two of the city's most famous figures.

And until several weeks ago, John B. Hench and Susan Hench Bowis were the only living children linked to a family steeped in the city's history and lore: As scions of Mayo Clinic physician Dr. Philip Hench, winner of the 1950 Nobel Prize for his contributions in the discovery of cortisone, and Mary Kahler Hench, the daughter of Kahler Hotel founder John B. Kahler, both were born and raised at the intersection of two historically resonate legacies.

And that living link was severed when Hench and Bowis died within weeks of each other. Hench, 81, died on April 10, 2024, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Three weeks later, his sister Bowis, 90, died April 29, 2024, peacefully at her home Bethesda, Maryland.

“My uncle and mother were very close as siblings, and while we mourn their passing, we are touched by the poignancy of it being within only weeks of each other,” said Wendy Kahler Bowis, a daughter of Susan Hench Bowis.

As children, brother and sister had front-row seats to one of medical science’s most sensational discoveries. Wendy Bowis said that her mom would recall dinner table talk in which her dad discussed his work on a number of similar hormones.

Dr. Hench discovered that one of those mysterious compounds, later called cortisone due to its origins in the adrenal cortex, had magical properties in alleviating inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis. A medical journey of two decades, it began when Dr. Hench noticed a remission of arthritis in a patient who suffered episodes of jaundice. He and a friend at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Edward Kendall, focused their energies on the hormones of the adrenal cortex.

In therapeutic trials, the compound produced dramatic results: Long-bedridden disabled people would attempt to dance.

Both John Hench and Susan Bowis, along with their two other siblings, mother and grandmother, journeyed to Stockholm to see their dad awarded the Nobel Prize in 1950. John was 7 and Susan was 17 at the time. Dr. Hench was believed to be the only recipient to bring his entire family to the ceremony, Wendy Bowis said. A picture shows the family arrayed in the front row of the ceremony.

Dr. Hench's’ medical career and its culmination as a Nobel Prize recipient left a lasting impression on daughter Susan Bowis.

“She did tell anybody who would listen to her who her dad was,” said Wendy Bowis.

Contributed / Wendy Bowis

Through their mother, the siblings were linked to the history of Rochester’s hospitality industry, the Kahler Hotel and its connection to the growth of Mayo Clinic. Being a small country town, Rochester at first could not offer enough places for patients and hospital workers to stay.

So brothers Will and Charlie Mayo turned to John Kahler, the Hench siblings' grandfather, to build them a hotel/hospital to be the “starting home of this grand, medical vision to offer care to people,” according to the Kahler Hospitality Group website.

Both children were influenced by Dr. Hench's wide-ranging interests in music, photography, tennis and medical history. Medical research was a form of detective work. And Dr. Hench was an avid reader of the stories of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, assembling a large collection of publications, photographs and manuscripts of the 19th century author.

Dr. Hench introduced his children to opera. He was a skilled piano player. “He was like a renaissance man,” Wendy Bowis said. And his children reflected and shared his eclectic interests in their own adult lives.

Susan Bowis was a lover of theater, the symphony and opera and was a longtime supporter of The Kennedy Center, her obituary said. John Hench considered a career in journalism, but opted for one dealing with books and history. In Worcester, Massachusetts, John Hench spent most of his career at the American Antiquarian Society.

“Throughout his career, he worked with scholars from around the world and mentored young academics,” his obituary said.

In his obituary, John Hench boasted about his Rochester upbringing as an “idyllic childhood.”

“No one loved his hometown more than John,” it said.

Brother and sister displayed different attitudes toward belonging to a family so rich and integral to Rochester's history. John Hench was more modest about it and downplayed it during his upbringing. There is no mention of his world-famous dad in his obituary. It is mentioned prominently in Susan Bowis’.

“I might have a new primary (physician), and my mom might say, ‘Did you tell him who your grandfather was,’” Wendy Bowis said.

Contributed

Contributed / Wendy Bowis

Contributed / Wendy Bowis

Contributed / Wendy Bowis

Andrew Link / Post Bulletin file photo

Matthew Stolle has been a Post Bulletin reporter since 2000 and covered many of the beats that make up a newsroom. In his first several years, he covered K-12 education and higher education in Rochester before shifting to politics. He has also been a features writer. Today, Matt jumps from beat to beat, depending on what his editor and the Rochester area are producing in terms of news. Readers can reach Matthew at 507-281-7415 or mstolle@postbulletin.com.