Theodore R. "Ted" Bowie was a prominent faculty member at Indiana University, whose contributions to the field of the history of Asian Art made him a pivotal figure in the development of the University's Art History Program. Bowie's research and travel in Asia would contribute to a number of acquisitions for exhibitions which he organized, and inform his work in the development of the University Art Museum. His exhibition "The Arts of Thailand", opening at the Museum in 1960, would become one of the first of its kind to display Thai art in the West, going on to travel throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Bowie was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1905 to a Russian mother and American father and grew up in both Nice, France, and San Francisco. Bowie received his bachelor's degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1927 and stayed on to earn his master's degree in political science in 1929, and his doctorate in French literature in 1935. Turning from his early career in French literature, Bowie would go on to fulfill a number of roles relating to the study of art and art history at Indiana University.

Beginning his career at Indiana University in 1950, Bowie would serve as Associate Professor in the Department of Fine Arts from 1950 to 1960. He then served as Associate Professor in the Graduate School from 1952 to 1960, and Professor from 1960 to 1975. While at IU, Bowie would also serve as Fine Arts Librarian from 1951 to 1960, as an unofficial Curator of Oriental Collections at the University Art Museum from 1962 to 1976, as Acting Chair of the Department of Fine Arts from 1970 to 1973, and as Chairman of the Arts Administration Program from 1969 to 1972. He received the title of Professor Emeritus upon his retirement in 1975.

Theodore Bowie died of heart failure on March 5, 1995 in his home in Bloomington, Indiana in the company of his wife Marilyn (Miller) Bowie.