Background
Rowe was born on August 2, 1920, in Heart"s Content, Dominion of Newfoundland (the present-day province of Newfoundland and Labrador).
Rowe was born on August 2, 1920, in Heart"s Content, Dominion of Newfoundland (the present-day province of Newfoundland and Labrador).
He completed medical school at Street Mary"s Hospital Medical School (which was part of the University of London at the time) in London following the war.
He also spent three years as the province"s Health Minister within the cabinet of the former Premier Frank Moores from January 1972 to 1975. He enlisted in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment during World World War World War II He returned to Newfoundland and settled in Carbonear in 1954, where he began his medical career as a general practitioner. In 1957, Doctor Rowe founded Carbonear"s first hospital, Carbonear Community Hospital.
He led the efforts to raise approximately $37,000 Canadian dollars to establish the new hospital, which provided regional patients which a local medical center.
Previously, patients needing hospital treatment had to travel to Saint John"s or Old Perlican. Rowe served as the director of Carbonear Community Hospital from its opening in 1957 until October 1971, when he resigned upon his election to the House of Assembly.
Rowe was re-elected to the House of Assembly in 1972. Rowe was appointed as provincial Health Minister within the cabinet of Premier Frank Moores from January 1972 to 1975.
He retired from politics in 1975 to pursue family medicine.
He later joined the faculty of Memorial University of Newfoundland and became the university"s chairman of Family Medicine from 1978 to 1985. A university honor, the Gus Rowe Teaching Award, which is bestowed by the Faculty of Medicine was named for Rowe. He died in Toronto on July 20, 2013, at the age of 92.
He served as a member of the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly for Carbonear from 1971 to 1975. Rowe was elected to the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly as a Modern Language Association from Carbonear in October 1971 as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.