Zelman Cowen was an Australian university administrator, legal scholar and statesman born into a Jewish family in Melbourne on 7 October 1919. He excelled academically, winning a scholarship to Scotch College, where he graduated Dux in 1935. He also graduated as the top student in law at the University of Melbourne. He was elected to a Rhodes Scholarship but his studies at Oxford were delayed by World War Two, during which he served in the Royal Australian Navy and later on General MacAthur's staff in Brisbane. In 1945 he married Anna Wittner, with whom he would have four children.

That same year, after the war, he returned to Oxford and was appointed Vinerian Scholar and a Fellow of Oriel College (a constituent college of Oxford University), and later was awarded a Doctorate of Civil Law from the University of Oxford for his thesis on the life of Sir Isaac Isaacs. In 1951 he returned to Australia, taking up a position as Dean of Law at the University of Melbourne. He later served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of New England and the University of Queensland, where he navigated student unrest during the Vietnam War era. In 1977, Cowen was appointed Governor-General of Australia. After five years, he returned to Oxford as Provost of Oriel College and later chaired the Press Council of Great Britain. Cowen was a prolific commentator on public and legal issues. He supported Australia becoming a republic in the 1990s. He earned numerous honorary degrees and national honours. He died on 8 December 2011.