Frank Kowalski (October 18, 1907 – October 11, 1974) was a career officer in the United States Army, and was a veteran of World War II and the Korean War. After retiring as a colonel, Kowalski went on to serve as a United States representative from Connecticut.

Kowalski quit school in 1924, and enlisted in the Army. He received an appointment to West Point after a competitive examination, and graduated in 1930. He served initially in Infantry assignments, and then received a graduate degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He conducted experiments and research with weapons and vehicles in the late 1930s, and was responsible for training soldiers and units for deployment to the North African Theater at the start of World War II. He subsequently served at Allied Headquarters in London, where he planned and oversaw the execution of plans for de-militarizing and rebuilding Germany after the war. During the Korean War, Kowalski served in Japan, and his assignments included training and equipping a Japanese internal defense force; this force was organized as a police force rather than a military one, enabling Japan to skirt its post-World War II prohibition on training and equipping an army.

After retiring from the Army in 1958, Kowalski was a successful Democratic candidate for the United States House of Representatives from Connecticut. He served two terms, 1959 to 1963, and was an unsuccessful United States Senate candidate in 1962. After leaving Congress, Kowalski served on the Subversive Activities Control Board from 1963 to 1966.

Kowalski retired to Alexandria, Virginia. He died in Washington, D.C., in 1974, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Kowalski was born in Meriden, Connecticut, on October 18, 1907 the son of Polish immigrants Frank and Mary (Miller) Kowalczyk. His father was a foundry worker, and the family also kept a farm. His parents also raised another child, Josephine, whose parents had died. The younger Frank Kowalski assisted with farm chores while he attended the schools of Meriden, as well as the Alliance Preparatory School, a Polish-American boarding school in Erie, Pennsylvania. Withdrawn from the Alliance School after the death of his mother because his father refused to continue paying the tuition, and unhappy with a home life that included a new stepmother, Kowalski was 17 when he quit school in 1924 (while in the 11th grade) so he could enlist in the United States Army.

He earned a 1926 appointment to the United States Military Academy through a competitive examination administered to eligible enlisted soldiers, and graduated from West Point in 1930. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant of Infantry, and advanced through the grades to receive promotion to colonel in 1944, while serving in World War II.

Kowalski's initial assignment was at Fort Holabird, Maryland, a research and development center for Army vehicles, where he attended the Transportation course for officers. In 1931, he was stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where his duties included leading an Infantry company's machine gun platoon, and field testing a motorcycle platoon in Upstate New York during the winter to compare the feasibility Cavalry troops and couriers on motorized vehicles to those on horses. Ultimately, the United States Army developed the jeep rather than the motorcycle to replace the horse. He was later assigned to the Armor branch, and then was selected for post-graduate study.

Kowalski received a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1937. His thesis was on the armor plating of tanks and other tracked vehicles; after completing his degree, he was assigned to the Army's Ordnance branch.