James Elmer Lowe
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.