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MEMORIAL ARTICLE
Published Assembly May '94
Robert M. Lowry, Jr. No.15760 Class of 1946
Died 25 August 1993 in Atascocita, Texas, aged 69 years. Interment:
Houston National Cemetery, Houston, Texas.
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Robert M. (Bob) Lowry, Jr. was born 25 February
1924 in Ballinger, Texas. At Ballinger High School he played
football and golf and graduated near the top of his class. He
entered Texas A&M University in 1941 and left in December
1942 after enlisting in the Army. He left the Army in 1943 to
join the Class of 1946 on 1 July.
One of his roommates, Phil Farris, recalled: "Bob
was a warm hearted Texan whose good nature and personal warmth
made all of is in Company H-1 his close friends. When the plebe
system was about to overwhelm one of us, he jumped in with a
bit of home spun philosophy to shake off the despair." Bob
chose to become an Air Cadet yearling year and graduated with
the wings of a second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps.
Bob's first assignment was to Arizona for further
training. He took time out to marry Charlotte Louise Kinney in
Ballinger, Texas, on 20 August 1946. From Arizona, Bob and Louise
moved to Shaw Field, South Carolina, and then on to Langley Field,
Virginia, where Bob was assigned to a tactical reconnaissance
squadron, one of the first jet squadrons in what was then the
Army Air Corps. An Air Force classmate, Hamilton (Bruce) Shawe,
recalled Bob's next assignment: "We spent a lot of time
flying air shows in 1947 and 1948 and explaining to ex-WWII pilots
that a jet did not have a propeller. During the summer of 1948,
most of us were assigned to a tactical reconnaissance squadron
at Yokota Air Base in Japan, flying the RF-80. When the Korean
War started, Bob was one of the first pilots in the squadron
to see combat, and, during his combat tour, he was awarded two
DFC's and nine Air Medals. When I went down behind enemy lines,
he and Bryce Poe were the two pilots in the squadron who risked
their lives in an effort to locate my downed aircraft."
From Korea, Bob was sent to Purdue University to
gain his masters in Electrical Engineering prior to assignment
as an instructor in the Electricity Department at West Point.
In 1956, Bob was chosen to help organize the new Physics and
Electrical Engineering Departments at the fledgling Air Force
Academy. The Lowrys left in 1960, for the Air Command and Staff
College at Maxwell Field, Alabama. From Maxwell, Bob was assigned
to the Air Force Systems Command, in the Advanced Planning Group
of the Electronic Systems Division. A friend Bob had served with
at Langley back in 1947, Frank Dillon, remembered: "Bob
was the one person I could depend on to work on the most complex
problems that came up.... A special office was opened at Cape
Canaveral, and Bob was assigned there under Brigadier General
Gus Lundquist. The mission was to get ESD more involved in the
Space Programs. Bob had the experience and background, as well
as the technical competence, to do the job..." In 1966,
Bob was selected to attend the Industrial College of the Armed
Forces at Fort McNair, DC. A friend and Air Force classmate,
Bryce Poe II, recalled: "Not long after graduation from
ICAF, Bob volunteered again for combat, this time in Vietnam.
There he had one of the most critically important assignments
related to the air campaign--commander of one of the Direct Air
Support Centers. It was his responsibility to control any USAF,
US Navy or RVN aircraft entering, crossing or operating in a
Corps area. Be it strike, close air support, resupply, airlift,
or airdrop, defoliation, courier, infiltration or extraction
of forces, it was all his. For this he earned the Legion of Merit,
and more pertinent, the respect of every combat airman. With
the rank of colonel and press of command responsibility, he once
again did not need to fly combat, but he would not ask it of
others without learning about what was going on in the air. As
in Korea, he flew as much or more than his subordinates, earning
another DFC and nine more Air Medals."
From Vietnam, Bob was assigned to J-6 in the Office
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He suffered a massive heart attack
in December of 1971 and retired 30 May 1973. The Lowrys moved
back to Texas and Bob taught math at North Harris Community College,
Houston, until 1978, when he accepted a position in Tehran, Iran
with the Ramo Woolridge Corporation. That job ended as Bob recalled:
"I was kicked out during the 1979 revolution." Bob
returned to Houston and worked for Houston Light and Power until
1983. He also taught part time at North Harris Community College
and took courses there, all the history; philosophy, literature
and religion courses offered. The effects of his massive heart
attack finally took their toll and Robert M. Lowry, Jr. died
25 August 1993. He is survived by his beloved wife, Louise; two
daughters. Debra and Mary; a son, Robert III; an aunt, Edna Grier;
and six grandchildren.
The remembrances of Bob Lowry all reflect a similar
theme; that Bob Lowry was loved and respected by his many friends
as a loving husband and father who lived each day of his life
by the West Point credo, Duty, Honor, Country. A classmate and
friend from his days teaching at West Point, Edward A. Saunders,
expressed well the feelings of loss felt by Bob's friends: "I
have lost one of my very best friends with Bob's passing. The
times we were together were among the best of my life."
Friend and classmate, Bruce Shawe, aptly put Bob's life into
perspective when he reminisced: "Husband, father, teacher,
leader, friend, companion, patriot, a true son of West Point,
Bob Lowry was all of these. He was also a fighter pilot with
the consummate ability to take his craft to the outer limits
of the flight envelope, and that special quality that makes fighter
pilots a 'band of happy warriors'."
At Bob's funeral service, his daughter in law read
a letter written by Bob's son, Robert M. Lowry, III: "Dad
was always wonderful to me, always gentle with me. He guided
and taught me strongly but with kindness and humor. Dad was always
there for me even when duty, honor, country required him to be
on the other side of the world. Many times he risked his life
for the freedom of the entire world. And he somehow managed to
survive and return to his family and become an old soldier. Texan,
Texas Aggie, West Pointer, Career Air Force Officer, Flyer, Husband,
Father, Father in law, Grandfather, Christian, Hole in one Golfer;
I love you, Dad."
The Class of 1946 joins his family and friends
in proclaiming, "Well Done, Bob; Be Thou At Peace!"
'46 Memorial Article Project and his family
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