2008
James Elmer Lowe, 81, a retired highway and construction engineer with the D.C. Department of Transportation, died April 23
at Capital Hospice in Arlington of complications of brain surgery. He lived in Manassas.
Mr. Lowe was born at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and grew up in Washington. He graduated from Eastern High School
and spent summers working as a deckhand with the Sea Scouts, a youth sailing program.
He served in the Army Air Forces from 1945 to 1947 and, for a time, guarded German prisoners of war. He joined the D.C.
Transportation Department in 1947 and worked as an on-site construction supervisor. He assisted on the design and
construction of the Anacostia Freeway and other highways in the District. He retired in 1980.
From 1951 to 1960, he had a second job as a stock clerk at a Grand Union grocery store in Alexandria.
Mr. Lowe lived in the Lincolnia Park neighborhood of Fairfax County for 47 years and was a fixture at neighborhood Christmas
and Fourth of July gatherings.
He was a member of the Masons, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the National Rifle Association and the American Legion. In
his youth, he was a member of St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill and later was a member of St. Alban's Episcopal
Church in Annandale.
Survivors include his wife of 60 years, Mary Murphy Lowe of Manassas; three children, David G. Lowe of Stafford, Claudia D.
Scordellis of Leesburg and Steven M. Lowe of Toms Brook, Va.; and eight grandchildren.