| Graduation Year | Class of 1963 |
| Date of Passing | Feb 10, 2022 |
| About | Thomas Jasper Lowe, Jr. passed away on February 10, 2022, at Baptist Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, where he had been born on August 10, 1945. He was preceded in death by his parents, Thomas Jasper Lowe, Sr. and Frances Louise Ross Lowe. Tom Lowe had a brilliant mind. He began violin lessons at 6 years old. At age 13, he built a working computer. At 15 he began performing with the Mississippi Symphony. His senior year in high school, he wrote a piece called “Poem for Orchestra” which was performed by the Symphony. Tom was an active Boy Scout, earning the rank of Eagle Scout and winning the God and Country award. He spent three summers playing the violin in Brevard, North Carolina at the Brevard Music Center. In 1962, the Brevard Orchestra performed on the White House lawn. Tom was in the first violin section. Tom received his early education in the Jackson Public School system, having attended Boyd Elementary including Boyd’s one year using the Watkins School addition, Bailey Junior High for the seventh and eighth grades and Chastain Junior High for the ninth grade. While a student at Murrah High School, Tom was a member of the JETS (Junior Engineering Technical Society) all three years, he played for the Jackson Symphony for three years as well. He was a member of the National Honor Society and Mu Alpha Theta during his junior and senior years. Tom was also a National Merit Semi-Finalist. After graduating from Murrah High School in 1963, Tom Lowe began his college education at Duke University. In the fall of 1964, he transferred to the University of Alabama, where he took time off from his studies in mathematics and music to enjoy rooting for the Crimson Tide. In 1967, he graduated with BA degrees in mathematics and music. The fall of 1967 found him at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, working on a doctorate in mathematics and teaching calculus. In anticipation of the draft, Tom entered the U.S. Air Force Officer Training program. After a stint at Tinker Air Force base, he was sent to Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, Hawaii. He worked as a computer programmer and played with the Honolulu Symphony. He spent three weeks in Saigon, where he said he “baby sat” a computer. He became the official photographer for the Chief of Protocol of the U.S. Air Force in Saigon. He was a skilled photographer and even had his own dark room. Returning to Oklahoma, he studied violin at the University of Oklahoma, where he met the young woman who would become his wife: Mary Lou Dickey. They married on May 20, 1972. In 1974, he decided to return to Mississippi. On May 1, 1975, his son, Thomas Daniel Lowe, was born. In September of that year, he entered law school at the Mississippi College School of Law, graduating with a Juris Doctorate with Distinction in 1978. In 1978-79, he clerked at the Mississippi Supreme Court for Justice Vernon Broom. Tom Lowe had a solo law practice for twenty-eight years. Then he worked as an oil land man for eight years prior to his retirement. Tom Lowe also created an online periodical called “The Jackson Progressive: a journal of politics and the arts - An alternative source of news and information for the metro Jackson, Mississippi area. Additionally, Tom wrote and published Jump Start Your Discovery Practice for New Lawyers. He was a member of the Mississippi Bar Association. He served on the Mississippi Board of Bar Examiners, as well as on the Lawyers and Judges Assistance Committee of the Mississippi Bar Association. In addition, he served on the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra Board and was an active member of the Kiwanis Civic Club. Tom Lowe was always a member of the Church, having grown up in the Central Presbyterian Church. Tom had a very fine baritone voice and always sang in the choir as soon as he was old enough. He sang in the Cathedral Choir of St. Andrew’s Cathedral for thirty-seven years, and most recently at St. James Episcopal Church. Singing in both English and Hebrew, he was also a soloist at Temple Beth Israel for twenty-two years. Tom Lowe is survived by his wife, Mary Lou Dickey Lowe, his son, Thomas Daniel Lowe and wife, Lee Ann Walker Lowe, and their sons, Simon Jasper Lowe and Andrew Holder Lowe, all of Boston Massachusetts. He is also survived by his sisters, Letitia Frances Lowe and Frances Louise Lowe Brannon, both of Columbia, South Carolina, as well as nephew Mark Jeffery Brannon of Columbia, South Carolina, and niece Melanie Elizabeth Brannon and Derrick Derringer of Nashville, Tennessee. His very dear first cousins were Dr. Reginald and Judy Shaw Lowe of Clarksville, Tennessee; Jeannelle Lowe Moritz, of Richmond, Virginia; Francine Lowe Greenlee of Madison, Mississippi; and Beth and Stuart Williams Kellogg of Los Angeles, California. We have lost a true Renaissance man in Tom Lowe. There is no way to describe his curiosity, his energy, and his optimism. Thank you, Tom, for so generously sharing your great heart and considerable gifts with us all. Thomas Jasper Lowe’s Requiem Service will be on Thursday, February 24, 2022, at 11 A.M., CST at St. James Episcopal Church on Oak Ridge Drive in Jackson Mississippi, live-streaming on Facebook. His interment will follow immediately at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in the Columbarium on Capitol Street. Arrangements are being handled by Sebrell Funeral Home. Donations may be made to St. James Episcopal Church, the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, both in Jackson, Mississippi, or the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. |
