Michael Alan "Mike" McGowan

A visitation for Michael McGowan will be held Friday, November 21, 2025, from 5:00 until 7:00 p.m. at Rose Neath Funeral Home in Minden, Louisiana. Graveside services will be Saturday, November 22, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. at Gardens of Memory Cemetery in Minden, Louisiana.

Mike was born July 27, 1969, in Minden, Louisiana and went home to his heavenly Father on November 17, 2025, following a brief illness.

Among the many loves of Mike’s life, including music, football, baseball, tennis, fishing, friends, and good food, his greatest loves were the Lord Jesus Christ, his family, and their dogs, Angus and Aila. Mike’s priorities were church on Sunday and spending as much time as possible with his wife Karen and their children. To his children Autumn and Johnston, he imparted a love of live music, and he along with Karen and their kids attended musical events around their home in Houston from Handel’s Messiah and rock classics like Led Zeppelin performed by the Houston Symphony to favorites of their kids’ such as Khruangbin at The Woodlands Pavillion. The other favorite family activity, travel, included trips to see National Parks, such as Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii, Yosemite in California, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier. The family enjoyed together night snorkeling with giant manta rays in Hawaii and spotting everything from hunting wolves to lurking mountain lions in the mountains of Wyoming and Montana. His love of fun and adventure was balanced with the joy of seeing his children achieve their educational aspirations; daughter Autumn obtaining an MS in Sustainability from Texas State University and son Johnston becoming a Texas Aggie Mechanical Engineer. Like any good father, Mike could not have been prouder.

Mike’s infectious laugh, sparkling intellect, and sense of humor that flashed regularly through green Irish eyes softened and defined a man who was somehow simultaneously simple and complex. His uncanny eye for detail could be relied upon on any given day, both professionally by his engineering peers and by his family at home, for leveling a crooked picture or accurately choosing the most appropriate content or even a paint color. Mike was a man so reliable upon in any given circumstance that it became his inherent nature, and the many excellent gifts he possessed could easily be overlooked by a casual observer. But for his family, including his wife of over three decades, everything about Mike was visible and beloved, and will be deeply missed until we see him again.

He was preceded in death by his father, Mickey McGowan and sister Lori McGowan.

He is survived by his mother, Frances McGowan of Minden, his wife, Karen McGowan of Houston, Texas and his children, Autumn McGowan of Austin, Texas and son, Johnston McGowan of Houston, Texas.

Pallbearers will be Jeff Tuey, Bud Copeland, Jeff McGowan, Connie Mack Martin, Bobby Evans and Joe Morgan.

Honorary pallbearer will be Derryl Holland.

In lieu of flowers, the family request donations be made to First Methodist Church or to the Minden High School Sports program.