He served all his career in the Western Bay, firstly on frontline as a constable in Tauranga, Mount Maunganui and Te Puke between 1993 and 2005.
In 2006 Mr Gowen was promoted to senior crimes officer with the Tauranga police forensic unit, and until his death was one of four forensic officers led by Sergeant Steve McKay.
Mr Buckley said Mr Gowen was a well-respected and popular member of the police who gave dedicated service to this district and to the community he loved.
"Mike had an awesome demeanour and he was a really sociable person, and that is why he was such a likeable, popular guy. He was also an avid 'soul-surfer' in his spare time and travelled widely 'living his dream' searching out waves in Australia and Indonesia.
"Mike was a skilled surfer with the ability to surf either natural or 'goofy-footed' and well known in the Mount surfing fraternity, and clearly identified by his silver hair and orange Kombi."
Mr Buckley said apart from surfing, Mr Gowen was knowledgeable about electronics and mechanics, and was quick to grasp new developments in these fields.
"Mike was always our go-to person when it came to anything about IT or electronics and he was always keen and willing to share his knowledge with anybody ... "
Mr Buckley said his mate's death had been another blow to the Gowen family, as Mr Gowen and his sister Pip Burke had lost their mother Jean this year. Mrs Gowen was head of physical education at Tauranga Girls' College for 29 years.
"Mike was one of life's awesome guys" and was deeply missed, he said.
Mr Buckley said he and Mr Gowen's other surfing buddies planned to mark Mr Gowen's passing with a Hawaiian-style paddle out into the surf down at Mount Maunganui in the coming days.
Mr Gowen is survived by his partner Val, and her daughters Becky and Sam, and his sister and brother-in-law Chris.
Back at the forensic unit, Mr McKay said he had known Mr Gowen his whole police career.
"I was the rookie on his section and he was one of the senior men, so he was the one who taught me a lot of my trade and, as fate would have it, 20 years later I ended up being his boss. Mikey was an awesome forensic officer, that's because of his great attention to detail, which is what you look for and what he certainly brought to his job.
"Mikey was the sort of guy that anyone on the forensic team wanted to have dealing with their personal burglary because his attention to detail was so good, as well as he was a bloody good guy," he said.
Mr McKay said in his time in the forensic section, Mr Gowen had been responsible for catching 500-odd burglars in the past 10 years and taking them off the streets, making a huge difference to the burglary statistics in this district.
Putting 500 burglars out of action probably affected many other lives too, he said, because if those offenders had stayed on the streets they could have done a lot more damage, and meant a lot more victims.
Western Bay police area commander Inspector Clifford Paxton also wanted to pay tribute to Mr Gowen and the contribution he had made to this community.
"It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the passing of Mike. I always found Mike to be a very positive, engaging member of Western Bay of Plenty police. He always gave of his time freely and went into great detail on matters of interest."
Mr Paxton said the Western Bay police was a large part of Mr Gowen's life and even when unwell, he would come into work and assist his colleagues in the forensic services unit.
"He was well respected by his colleagues and friends and I was both extremely proud and grateful of the way his family, friends, workmates and colleagues supported Mike during his illness.
"He was fortunate to have family, friends, workmates and colleagues of the calibre he did. We will all miss him greatly."
A celebration of Mr Gowen's life will take place at the Olive Tree Cottage, 247 Joyce Rd, Pyes Pa, on Monday at 2pm.