Robert Frazier Lowe Jr. of Brewster died peacefully at Cape Cod Hospital on Jan. 27, 2025, surrounded by family. The cause was complications from leukemia. He was 86.
Bobby was born on June 24, 1938 in Englewood, N.J., the first son of Eloise Lowe and Robert F. Lowe Sr. He graduated in 1957 from Englewood’s Dwight Morrow High School, where he began his lifelong obsession with distance running; he won two New Jersey high school cross-country state championships and, in his senior year, the state mile title.
He continued his successes in cross-country and track at Brown University. In the spring of his senior year, Bobby posted a double victory in the IC4A track championships at Villanova, setting a meet record of 14:12 in the three-mile run and then, after only 28 minutes of rest, winning the steeplechase in 9:35.
Introduced to the Cape by his first wife, Elizabeth, whom he married in 1959, Bobby trained here in the summers, running barefoot at Nauset Beach and working at Howard Johnson’s in Orleans. He took up sailing and often raced in the regattas on Pleasant Bay.
Bobby and Elizabeth had their first son, Robin, in 1959. Bobby graduated from Brown in 1961 with a degree in sociology and served as alumni president of his class for the rest of his life, working especially on development of the track program.
At the height of his college career he had Olympic hopes, but a case of mono prevented him from trying out for the 1960 games.
In 1961, Bobby returned to Englewood. After earning an M.B.A. from New York University, he began a career in banking, first at Irving Trust and then with Paine Webber and Prudential Securities. He later founded and managed a consultancy that raised funds for the East New York Development Fund and the Kennedy Collective in Connecticut.
In 1964, a second son, William Courtney, was born. Bobby and Elizabeth divorced in 1976, and he married Christa Corwin in 1981. A third son, Alex, was born in 1988. The family became summer regulars at the Orleans house of Bobby’s in-laws, Betty and William Cochran.
In 2004, Bobby retired to Truro and continued to enjoy sailing out of Provincetown. He frequented art galleries and built up his collection, befriending many artists and gallery owners. He often gave hiking tours of the World War II-era Camp Wellfleet and volunteered time to historic restoration projects in Truro.
Several years ago, Bobby fell in love with San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He bought a house there in 2021 and developed lasting relationships with many residents and part-timers. He liked nothing more than walking to the center of San Miguel for lunch and going to movies, concerts, and art exhibitions. He kept fit by playing tennis. He had always been an obsessive, self-taught home renovator, and his home in Mexico was the grand finale of a history of home improvement projects.
Bobby is survived by his brothers, Gary Lowe of Bulgaria, Randy Lowe of Signal Mountain, Tenn., and John Lowe of Demarest, N.J.; three sons, Robin and wife Sigrid Hackenberg Lowe of Brooklyn, N.Y., William and wife Daphne Lowe of Orleans, and Alex and wife Kate Lowe of Hewitt, N.J.; the mothers of his sons, Elizabeth deLima of East Orleans and Christa Corwin of Ashville, N.C.; his cousin and dear friend Sherry Cullimore of New Durham, N.H. and her son, Blake Cullimore of Salem; his granddaughters, Elizabeth Lowe Fecsko of Newton Center and Caitlyn Lowe of Hanover, N.H.; his grandson, Jackson Alexander Lowe of Hewitt, N.J.; and his great-grandchild, Emerson Eloise Fecsko.
The family will hold a memorial service at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 3 at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Chatham. Friends and family and welcome.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Bobby’s honor to the American Diabetes Association.
