Born in 1920 to deaf parents, Benjamin M. Schowe, Jr., attended Gallaudet College, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1942. He taught elementary school at the Virginia School for the Deaf for a year before moving on to the Ohio School for the Deaf in 1943, where he served as a teacher, librarian, and audiovisual director for the next twenty-eight years.

At this time, audiovisual education was rapidly becoming a more important means of instruction in classrooms and libraries, and Schowe became an expert in the field. He was particularly known for his work in evaluating material intended for hearing students and adapting it for the deaf. In 1955, he received a master’s degree in primary and audiovisual education from Ohio State University, and went on to take a Ph.D. in communication, curriculum, and sociology from OSU in 1970.

Soon after the Model Secondary School for the Deaf was established in 1969, Dr. Schowe was recruited to join the staff there, and he moved to Maryland in 1971. He was originally hired as a resource teacher to work in the Learning Resources Center (LRC), but later joined MSSD’s English department while still overseeing the library. He took an active hand in shaping MSSD’s educational philosophy and library policies while employed there.

In 1984, Dr. Schowe was transferred to the Gallaudet archive as the college’s records manager. After two years, the position was terminated. Dr. Schowe attempted to rejoin the MSSD faculty but ended up taking retirement in 1986. He moved to Roanoke, Virginia, where he was active in American Sign Language (ASL) education and the local deaf community, including establishing ASL and interpreter training courses at Virginia Western Community College. He passed away in 1996.