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Roland “Ron” Lowe was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to Roland Chester Lowe Sr. and Hazel Dorothy (Morse) Lowe. After graduating from high school, Ron had no intention of going to college, so he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. At one point, Ron was the honor guard for President Harry S. Truman. However, after less than two years in the Navy, Ron contracted tuberculosis and received an honorary discharge. After being in a sanatorium for two years and not being cured, he took a newly invented drug called streptomycin, which cured him. While at the sanatorium, Ron developed a love of reading, which inspired him to pursue higher education (contracting TB was a turning point in his life.) Ron went on to the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass), where he met his soon-to-be wife, Joan Barclay. The couple had two children, Bill and Lauren. After UMass, Ron attended graduate school at Clark University and finished with his doctorate in psychology. His love of adventure and travel took the family from Massachusetts to Hawaii, where they lived an idyllic island life for three years before eventually settling in Palo Alto. Ron worked at the Children’s Health Council at Stanford, the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, and in private practice, but spent the longest part of his career as the head of the psychology department at SCU. Ron was instrumental in developing the department, later becoming a tenured professor of psychology, emeritus. After being married almost 25 years, Ron and Joan separated. He never remarried and lived out his life in Palo Alto and the East Bay, enjoying reading, golf, and travel—almost exclusively to Europe, and especially to London, Paris, Provence, Rome, Scotland, and Ireland. He loved to discuss history, World War II, Darwin, Dawkins, theology, existentialism, Freud, and Maslow, and he always appreciated a healthy debate. Ron is survived by his brother, Lester; Joan; children Bill (and wife Kristine) and Lauren (and husband Mike); and five wonderful grandchildren, Allyn, Andrew, Ryan, Megan, and Rachel; as well as an incredible group of his East Coast extended relatives, nephews, and nieces, with whom he spent many a professor’s summer vacation. He died Sept. 30, 2017.

16 Oct 2017