Remembering Kevin McDowell, attorney, cyclist, adventurer and devoted family man

Kevin Lansing McDowell passed away at home on October 22, 2024. His family was with him. He was born in Lake Valhalla, New Jersey, to Barbara Bradshaw McDowell and Lansing Wetmore McDowell. He grew up in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey. He spent one year of high school in London, England, while his family was living there, and graduated from Mountain Lakes High School in 1973.

Kevin attended Hamilton College for two years, then took a year off and worked as a carpenter on Cape Cod. He returned to college at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and graduated with a BA in psychology in 1978. He met his wife Joan at UMass. Kevin went on to law school at the University of Colorado, where he was a member of the law review. He received his JD in 1982. After a one-year court clerkship in Boulder, Kevin practiced law in Boulder for 33 years, much of that time with a firm he shared with Joan, McDowell & Norman.

Kevin and Joan were married in 1983 in Boulder and raised their two children there. In 2019, they relocated to the Boston area for two years to care for their first grandchild while his parents were at work.

Kevin enjoyed cooking, traveling, cycling, fly fishing, camping with family and friends, gardening, coaching soccer and music with his kids, and any time with his grandkids. In 2017, he backpacked the entire John Muir Trail in California with friends. Cycling being a particular passion, he and Joan bicycled in Turkey, France, Croatia, and Italy. Kevin completed the Triple Bypass over 10 times, the Iron Horse, the Mount Evans (now Blue Sky) Hill Climb, the California Death Ride, and the Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day (RAMROD), among other rides.

Within months of retiring, Kevin was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of prostate cancer, which he fought for the last nine years of his life. Even though the cancer, its treatments, and its side effects significantly impeded him, he continued to live an otherwise healthy and active life, taking care of his grandkids, traveling, cycling, and fishing. As drugs and radiation slowed him down, he started riding an e-bike so he could continue to ride with friends (he wholeheartedly endorses the e-bike). When e-biking became too difficult, he took up birding, with many stunning photos to show for it. He generally remained optimistic and did not want to be defined by his disease.

Kevin was predeceased by his parents and, in 1995, by his only brother, Thomas Bradshaw McDowell. Kevin is survived by his wife of 41 years, Joan Norman; his son, Sam McDowell (wife Emma Herzog); his daughter, Laura Norman (husband Jake Lindstrom); grandsons Jack and Charlie McDowell; and granddaughters Ingrid and Margot Norman, all of Boulder.

In lieu of flowers, Kevin requests that donations be made to a great organization supporting the ever-increasing Parkinson’s population, the Davis Phinney Foundation, https://davisphinneyfoundation.org. Kevin did not have Parkinson’s, but friends do, and Kevin was a longtime supporter of the foundation.

Kevin felt very fortunate to have his wife, children and their spouses, and grandchildren close by during his last few years. He was also grateful to be able to get together with close friends from high school, law school, and locally. It never made sense to Kevin to have lifelong friends show up for a memorial service after he had passed. It made a lot of sense to see people he was close to in his final years, and share trips, fishing, and birdwatching. Kevin knew that a memorial service was planned, but he requested that the focus be on supporting his family.