Born in San Antonio, Cowden "spent early years raising cattle and doing ranch work on the 21,500-acre spread his father ran near Pearsall".
[2] Cowden then joined the United States Air Force as a lieutenant,[2] during which time he "commanded a squadron based in Japan, a job usually held by a major".
[3][4] He was elected to a third term in the 60th Texas Legislature in November 1966, but was never sworn in, as he instead resigned to assume the office of assistant attorney general,[2][3] serving in that position under Texas Attorney General Crawford Martin, whose campaign Cowden had managed in 1966.
[2] On January 15, 1968, Governor John Connally appointed Cowden chairman of the Texas Board of Insurance.
[2] Following the election of Governor Preston Smith later that year, Cowden left public service for a position as general counsel and senior vice president of the Great American Reserve Insurance Co.[1][4] Then, in August 1975, Governor Dolph Briscoe named Cowden to the newly established Public Utility Commission of Texas, along with William Garrett Morris and Alan Erwin.