Charles McDowell, Jr.

Charles Rice McDowell Jr. (June 24, 1926 – November 5, 2010) was a long-time political writer and nationally syndicated columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch and panelist on PBS-TV's Washington Week in Review. McDowell appeared in an interview in Ken Burns' documentary The Congress; provided the character voice for Sam R. Watkins in Burns' documentary The Civil War; and provided character voice as well as consultation for Burns' documentary Baseball. McDowell was a Washington and Lee University alumnus and a member of Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism.

Life McDowell was born in Danville, Kentucky, on June 24, 1926. He was the son of Charles Rice McDowell Sr. and Catherine Frazier Feland. When he was young, the family moved to Lexington, Virginia, where the elder McDowell was a professor of law at Washington and Lee University. (His mother was the long-time secretary to the law dean; eventually, she was said to wield so much power that she effectively "was the dean of law.") The younger McDowell became an undergraduate there, majoring in English and graduating in 1948. He also graduated from the Columbia University School of Journalism.