The bronze bust depicts former Governor Otis R. Bowen in glasses and wearing a jacket, shirt and tie.

A plaque attached to the wall under the alcove reads: Dr. Bowen was the first / Governor to serve two / consecutive four year / terms since adoption of the / 1851 Indiana Constitution.

[1] In 1981, the original model of the bust was made in clay based on Polaroid photographs taken of the governor by artist Lou Ann Lanagan, a personal friend of Bowen's.

[3] Three copies were made of the bust: one resides in the rotunda of the Indiana Statehouse, one at the Otis R. Bowen Museum on the campus of Bethel College, and another belongs to Ball State University, where it stands in the Archives and Special Collections Research Center in Bracken Library.

[3] Sculptor Lou Ann Lanagan was not professionally trained as an artist, but became interested in sculpting after watching her dentist work with dental plaster.