William Henry Harrison Cowles was born in Wilkesboro (Wilkes County), North Carolina, on December 3, 1891. In 1914, Cowles was admitted to the bar and opened a law practice in North Wilkesboro. During World War I, he served as a first lieutenant in the coastal artillery. He went on to receive his M.A. from Columbia University and taught mathematics at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn from 1925 to 1957. He died in Statesville (Iredell County) on November 30, 1976.