Businessman, deacon, 'jokester,' 91
Republican-American (Waterbury, CT)
March 22, 2006
CHESHIRE - As a young man, Burdon G. Lowe carried a valise filled with homemade silk bow ties, which he sold to his coworkers at Risdon Manufacturing Co. in Naugatuck.
March 22, 2006
CHESHIRE - As a young man, Burdon G. Lowe carried a valise filled with homemade silk bow ties, which he sold to his coworkers at Risdon Manufacturing Co. in Naugatuck.
At restaurants and convalescent homes, he pulled out a harmonica and played "Happy Birthday" and other tunes to strangers and companions.
And throughout his life, he doled out his collection of jokes - sharing a chuckle with customers of his mail-order bow tie business, communicants of St. Bridget's Church, where he served as deacon, and nurses at St. Raphael's in New Haven, after his triple-bypass heart surgery.
Lowe, also known as "Don," 91, who recently published the joke-book "Deacon Jokes That a Pastor Can Tell*; *Possibly even a Bishop," died Monday, March 20 at Saint Mary's Hospital in Waterbury. He was the husband of Ann M. (DelGrosso) Lowe.
"He just loved to make people happy," said his daughter, Nancy Finkenzeller of Waterbury. "He was a jokester from the time I knew him."
Mr. Lowe was born June 27, 1914, in Waterbury, son of the late Martin U. and Martha (Granger) Lowe. He graduated from Hopeville Grammar School in 1928, Mount Hermon School in Northfield, Mass., in 1935, and Colgate University in 1939. He lived in Cheshire for the past 48 years.
After college, he worked for Scovill Manufacturing Co., producing defense products used during World War II. At the end of the war, he was transferred to the Oakville Co., a division of Scovill, where he worked as export manager.
In 1948, he became purchasing manager for Risdon. During his career there, he was elected president of the Connecticut Association of Purchasing and vice president of the National Association of Purchasing Management.
But throughout this time, he had a difficult time finding the silk bow ties that he loved to wear, his daughter said. So, his wife taught herself how to make them. The couple made bow ties and foreign hand ties in their basement and sold them out of their home and at crafts fairs throughout the region.
"He had a little brochure that he always had with him," his daughter said. "He put in every order how to tie a bow tie."
After retiring from Risdon in 1964, Lowe and his wife formed a mail-order business to sell the ties, Lowe Bow Originals. They shipped bow ties all over the world. Their clientele included congressmen, federal and state judges and justices and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
"It just kind of mushroomed," his daughter said. "Very few of his customers were from Connecticut. They were from all over the United States, many from Japan, England."
Lowe Bow Originals was featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal in June 1996, four years before the couple sold the company.
Lowe was also a Catholic deacon for 27 years. He was ordained Feb. 28, 1977, in our Lady of Victory Church, West Haven, and served at St. Bridget's Church until the age of 75.
For many years, he ministered at convalescent homes, where he would do a communion service and tell jokes. Sometimes he brought his wife and children to perform a musical show.
"It was kind of their light of their week because not only did he do a communion service, he would then just make them happy," his daughter said.
In 2000, after having heart surgery, he wrote and published his clean-joke book. He sold more than 2,000 copies and gave all profits to the Catholic Diaconate of the Hartford Diocese.
He also played drums in several Waterbury dance bands, including Franis Delfino and his orchestra, where he met his wife, and spent a year as a disc jockey on WWCO with a program called "The Jazz Journal." He was involved in raising money for the annual alumni fund at Mount Hermon School.
"He always was happy-go-lucky," his daughter said. "He never let the past bother him. He was always thinking forward on the next thing."
Last week, she said, he got a phone call from a doctor and bow tie customer encouraging him to write a history of the tie company called "Blessed be the Tie that Binds."
Besides his wife and daughter, he leaves a son, Martin Lowe of Thomaston; and three grandchildren.
Arrangements: Funeral 9:45 a.m. Friday from Buckmiller Brothers Funeral Homes, 26 Waterbury Road, Route 69, Prospect, to St. Bridget's Church, Cheshire, for Mass at 10:30 a.m. Burial: St. Bridget's Cemetery. Calling hours 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home.
Contributions: St. Bridget's Church, 175 Main St., Cheshire 06410; or Archdiocese of Hartford Diaconate, 467 Bloomfield Ave., Bloomfield 06002.
– Compiled by Sydney Schwartz
And throughout his life, he doled out his collection of jokes - sharing a chuckle with customers of his mail-order bow tie business, communicants of St. Bridget's Church, where he served as deacon, and nurses at St. Raphael's in New Haven, after his triple-bypass heart surgery.
Lowe, also known as "Don," 91, who recently published the joke-book "Deacon Jokes That a Pastor Can Tell*; *Possibly even a Bishop," died Monday, March 20 at Saint Mary's Hospital in Waterbury. He was the husband of Ann M. (DelGrosso) Lowe.
"He just loved to make people happy," said his daughter, Nancy Finkenzeller of Waterbury. "He was a jokester from the time I knew him."
Mr. Lowe was born June 27, 1914, in Waterbury, son of the late Martin U. and Martha (Granger) Lowe. He graduated from Hopeville Grammar School in 1928, Mount Hermon School in Northfield, Mass., in 1935, and Colgate University in 1939. He lived in Cheshire for the past 48 years.
After college, he worked for Scovill Manufacturing Co., producing defense products used during World War II. At the end of the war, he was transferred to the Oakville Co., a division of Scovill, where he worked as export manager.
In 1948, he became purchasing manager for Risdon. During his career there, he was elected president of the Connecticut Association of Purchasing and vice president of the National Association of Purchasing Management.
But throughout this time, he had a difficult time finding the silk bow ties that he loved to wear, his daughter said. So, his wife taught herself how to make them. The couple made bow ties and foreign hand ties in their basement and sold them out of their home and at crafts fairs throughout the region.
"He had a little brochure that he always had with him," his daughter said. "He put in every order how to tie a bow tie."
After retiring from Risdon in 1964, Lowe and his wife formed a mail-order business to sell the ties, Lowe Bow Originals. They shipped bow ties all over the world. Their clientele included congressmen, federal and state judges and justices and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
"It just kind of mushroomed," his daughter said. "Very few of his customers were from Connecticut. They were from all over the United States, many from Japan, England."
Lowe Bow Originals was featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal in June 1996, four years before the couple sold the company.
Lowe was also a Catholic deacon for 27 years. He was ordained Feb. 28, 1977, in our Lady of Victory Church, West Haven, and served at St. Bridget's Church until the age of 75.
For many years, he ministered at convalescent homes, where he would do a communion service and tell jokes. Sometimes he brought his wife and children to perform a musical show.
"It was kind of their light of their week because not only did he do a communion service, he would then just make them happy," his daughter said.
In 2000, after having heart surgery, he wrote and published his clean-joke book. He sold more than 2,000 copies and gave all profits to the Catholic Diaconate of the Hartford Diocese.
He also played drums in several Waterbury dance bands, including Franis Delfino and his orchestra, where he met his wife, and spent a year as a disc jockey on WWCO with a program called "The Jazz Journal." He was involved in raising money for the annual alumni fund at Mount Hermon School.
"He always was happy-go-lucky," his daughter said. "He never let the past bother him. He was always thinking forward on the next thing."
Last week, she said, he got a phone call from a doctor and bow tie customer encouraging him to write a history of the tie company called "Blessed be the Tie that Binds."
Besides his wife and daughter, he leaves a son, Martin Lowe of Thomaston; and three grandchildren.
Arrangements: Funeral 9:45 a.m. Friday from Buckmiller Brothers Funeral Homes, 26 Waterbury Road, Route 69, Prospect, to St. Bridget's Church, Cheshire, for Mass at 10:30 a.m. Burial: St. Bridget's Cemetery. Calling hours 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home.
Contributions: St. Bridget's Church, 175 Main St., Cheshire 06410; or Archdiocese of Hartford Diaconate, 467 Bloomfield Ave., Bloomfield 06002.
– Compiled by Sydney Schwartz
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