John Fowler, Jr.

  • Class
    1978
  • Induction
    1999
  • Sport(s)
    Football
UCLA, 1978
• 1977 Academic All-America® First Team

Dr. John Fowler, Jr., was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame in 1999.

Describing the game of football as a “scientific sport,” Dr. John Fowler has approached both the game of life and football in an openhanded, open-minded fashion. Fowler was a member of UCLA’s 1976 Rose Bowl championship team and was the fourth leading collegiate tackler in his senior season of 1977. Upon graduating magna cum laude in 1978, he went on to receive a post graduate scholarship, putting him in a league as one of the top 15 student athletes in the nation. 

Fowler decided to pass up professional football and instead volunteered in India as a teacher before attending medical school back at UCLA, where he received his medical degree in 1983. Following medical school and completing his residency at the University of Cincinnati, he bypassed a lucrative career in the United States to teach medicine in Turkey.  Fowler was a trailblazer in Turkish medicine. As a professor at Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir, Turkey since 1990 (and teaching all his classes in newly learned Turkish), he founded the Turkey Emergency Medicine Association, changing the face of medicine in Turkey. In addition to his work at the university, Fowler has written many articles and participated in numerous volunteer projects of both established and emergency nature. In 1999, after earthquakes devastated the region, Fowler and his students were busy leading rescue efforts to save lives in his adoptive homeland. Fowler and his family continued to live and work in Turkey, traveling, experiencing new cultures, and making contributions to the region.