|
Mick Lowe died on April 17, 2021 in Sudbury, Ontario. He is survived by his wife Anita, daughters Julia (Jason) and Melanie (Jeremy), grandson Jonas, as well as his stepson Nick, stepdaughter Meg, and step-granddaughter Clara, and other extended family members
Mick joined our class in the middle of our Junior year. We shared a class taught by Mr. Keene but I do not have many memories of him from Southeast. Our yearbook mentions that he was in the Debate Club and the Amateur Radio Club. Mick went to Canada in 1971, a move inspired, as for many others, by the Viet Nam war. He lived out his life in Ontario, Canada,
I am very happy that I reconnected with Mick online in the last years of his life. Mick was a journalist and an author of eight novels. In his middle career, he participated in the opening of a rural medical school in Northern Ontario. We connected over discussions about the problems of providing health care and medical education in rural areas, including Canada's more inclusive model, and the problems that the U.S. has in providing basic health care to its citizens. Mick had a stroke in 2008. He was amazing in his ability to continue writing novels, one finger at a time. We connected also because my father had a similar stroke in his later years. Despite the difficulties caused by his stroke, Mick always had a wry smile and a pithy comment on any subject.
You can get a feeling of the impact that Mick made on his adopted city of Sudbury from this remembrance from the paper where he had worked: https://www.sudbury.com/local-news/a-life-well-lived-veteran-journalist-and-writer-mick-lowe-has-passed-away-at-age-73-3642248. Mick's journalism often reached out to the plight of the little guy and to labor issues. He was a life-long Cornhusker Football fan and Canadians had a hard time understanding this fascination including his willingness to drive all the way to North Carolina just to see a game!
Rest in peace, Mick.
Posted by Gregg Wright https://lougheedfuneralhomes.com/book-of-memories/4586932/Lowe-Mick/index.php
|
Jennifer Seyler (Jacobs)
Mick was a really nice guy, genuine and intelligent with a good sense of humor. He will be missed. Yes, it's true, as Kathleen said, he was part of the prank to hang a painting in the Sheldon Gallery. The reason it wasn't discovered for so long was because it was Really good. It was painted by Joel Babb. Don't worry, I don't think Joel will get in trouble now. :)
Janet Carlson
Rats. I hate to think of Mick Lowe gone. I heard he had gone to Canada, but that was all I heard after graduation. He was indeed in debate. He and I partnered once or twice for various tournaments. He was one of the gentlest, funniest, smartest guys I ever knew.
Thanks to whoever posted his obituary. I envy your having gotten to communicate with him in recent years. God bless his soul.
Janet Carlson
Kathleen Augustin (Boardman)
Around graduation time, a couple of stories circulated about Mick's practical jokes. As a journalist, he would want such rumors fact-checked, but I share them anyway because they show Mick's bold and good-humored spirit.
In the innocent days before massive security cameras, Mick and a friend sauntered into Sheldon Art Gallery and hung the friend's painting among the Sheldon masterpieces. Several days passed before the art caper was discovered. The second story is about Mick's friend "graduating" from LSE without ever attending a day of class. Just as the graduation ceremonies were about to begin, Mick convinced a teacher or other official that he had forgotten his cap and gown, and a second set was provided--which he promptly gave to his friend, who then walked across the stage with the rest of us.
Many thanks to the obituary writer (was that you, Gregg?) for giving us the facts about a life well lived!
Robert Erickson (Liese Greensfelder)
Mick was a true friend to me. We really got acquainted in college and he introduced me to a new world of ideas and reading. Our senior year at UNL we lived together in a commune on "D" Street and later on Washington St. The FBI followed us around as Mick discovered later by requesting his file under the freedom of information act. He was an active member of the Students for a Democratic Society and introduced me to a world of political activism which I had never known. We worked together at the State Psychiatric Hospital and for Harry Gaylor's limosine service driving airport passengers to their homes around Lincoln. Mick became friends with Steve Abbott while he was being tried for refusing induction into the Army and Steve counseled several of us at the Commune during this time.
After Mick's stroke I visited him in Sudbury Ontario at the house which he had built on the edge of a lake where his extensive library was perfectly organized and which followed him to his new digs at a care facility in town.
Gregg Wright mentioned his love of Husker football and while in Canada he wrote a column following those Huskers who played in the Canadian League, critically following their work each week.
I loved Mick and he enriched my life in many ways.
Joel Babb
The loss of Mick Lowe hits home. We became friends during the two years we each spent at LSE. After graduation we spent a summer together as part of a crew on an archaeology dig of the Nebraska State Historical Society. We handled shovels in the hot sun, shared a tent, and many conversations and adventures in Rulo, Nebraska. He was reading Balzac's Pere Goriot, and it was clear that Mick wanted to be a writer. I lost touch with Mick after college, but later was very grateful to be back in touch with him through the book club of a few friends from LSE. Mick became the Balzac of Sudbury, Ontario with the novels of his Nickle Range Trilogy. This trilogy represents a heroic comeback from the stroke which would have defeated a lesser spirit. He could no longer practice the kind of journalism that had been his career, but bit by bit he found a way for his talents to flower and realize the dream of writing novels. He was a wonderful wordsmith. I have a trove of email converstions with him in which he still speaks and sparkles in his characteristic way. It is fortunate that his notebooks and papers from his career as a journalist are preserved in an archive in Ontario. Long ago I remember sitting with him at the police station in Lincoln in the wee hours monitoring the police scanner when Mick had a job with the paper. When the report of a fatal accident occurred Mick grabbed his notebook and camera and we drove to the site of the accident. The story came out in the paper the next day. I remember teasing him about journalists opportunistically making a living off of other people's misfortunes. Many years later I found out this hurt Mick. i've learned to respect the craft and profound benefit of real journalism. Mick was a real journalist and a benefit to humanity in his work. Farewell, friend!
Bruce Watson
Real journalists research and report the truth. We could sure use a whole bunch of Mick Lowes and will surely miss the original.
Kathy Ewing
I was lucky to sit by Mick in senior English. I'm pretty sure, which is about as sure as I am about many things these days, it was June Williams' class. She was a great teacher, and class got even better when I ended up sitting near Mick. It immediately became clear that, although not a big talker, he was smart as heck, had a great sense of humor, and seemed more in touch with the bigger picture and wise like almost nobody else my age that I knew then. (well, maybe excepting Bob E. and Maryann J.!) He was an absolute pleasure to be around and I wish I'd kept n touch with with him over the years. For those of you who may not get UNL's Nebraska Quarterly, there was an article by him in the Fall 2019 issue. It's titled "Beatniks, Hippies, and Free Speech--The year was 1966 when freshman Mick Lowe was enlightened as Allen Ginsberg spoke and chanted with a crowd of students". It is a terrific article and it sure made me feel grateful to have gotten to know him in senior English class.