SOUTH PORTLAND- Perry Jay Cowen, aged 64, passed away on January 24, 2022. He was born in Canton, Ohio on November 19, 1957, the third child of the late Earl Lawrence Cowen, originally of Wichita, Kansas, and the late Harriet Louise Cowen, originally of Fairfield, Maine. After graduating from Stark State College of Technology in North Canton, Ohio, Perry moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico to work at Sandia National Laboratories as a mechanical engineer and engineering modeler. He became a project leader and issue management specialist working across multiple systems, geographic locations, designs, and production processes. Following his retirement in 2016, Perry relocated to Houston, Texas, to be near the family of his beloved wife Patricia. The couple enjoyed travel, hiking, and camping, taking an RV trip that lasted several months as recently as the summer of 2020. Perry was also a gifted and knowledgeable builder and remodeler of all their residences. In both his professional career and his personal life, he was a reliable resource to all around him for empathetic analysis, creative problem solving, and practical resolutions. When diagnosed with terminal esophageal cancer, he responded with the same mix of clear-sightedness, pragmatism, and unselfish consideration his friends and family had always known. In December 2021, he and his wife moved to South Portland, Maine for the state’s “Death with Dignity” law and also because of the invaluable support they received from Perry’s brother Larry Cowen of Bedford, New Hampshire. In his last months, Perry had frank and intimate conversations with all who were dear to him, and he also documented his experience of the death-with-dignity process. As cancer took its toll, he summoned the strength and determination to die on his own terms and with his family around him. Perry is survived by his wife Patricia; his son John Lanier, John’s wife Kym, and their son James; his first wife Wendy Brothers; his sister Lena Orlin and her husband Glenn Orlin; and his brother Larry, Larry’s wife Sharon Cowen, their daughters Kaitlyn Cowen and Kelsey Cowen, Kaitlyn’s husband Allan Broskowitz, and Allan’s daughters Ella and Olivia. In a “Celebration of Life” with some family members attending in person and some via Zoom, Perry was remembered for always thinking first of others and for making all the lives he touched better and kinder. He was an organ donor whose corneas will benefit others, and he participated in the disaster recovery missions of Bedford Presbyterian Church, where a fund to recover family homes has been established in his memory. For gifts made online at https://bpcnh.breezechms.com/give/online, select “Give to Mission: Perry Cowen – Recovery.” Checks should be made out to Bedford Presbyterian Church (memo line: “Perry Cowen Recovery Mission”) and mailed to Bedford Presbyterian Church, 4 Church Road, Bedford, NH 03110. Perry’s remains will be buried in a family plot in Fairfield, Maine.