George Browne
Contributing Writer
Half a century or more ago, The College of Wooster had a bachelor President whose legacy still reverberates across the campus. Unfortunately, his legacy is threatened by a beatification process perpetrated by the College’s leadership. For those of us who have known, lived with and loved the College for over a century, this glossing over is painful. Both of my grandfathers graduated from the College, and when our son was preparing his application in 1978, we stopped counting Wooster legacy relatives at twenty-two.
There have been more since.
I do not question the quality of a Wooster education or the ongoing quality of faculty, programs and students. The refusal to recognize the clay feet of a lecherous President makes mockery of his sanctification. Howard Lowry pursued young women over the course of several years, and still was doing it when he died. Administrators and the Board knew this, though they didn’t figure out how to stop it.
When we learned of Lowry’s death in the summer of 1967, my wife—one of his victims—and I felt mostly relieved. Now it has come back to haunt me and other victims of his lechery. To those who say that he backed off once a young woman rejected his advances, I can only testify that in October 1966, he came to Washington, DC and asked my fiancée, at the time, to break our engagement. I consider this the basest of betrayals.
Over the decades, we have been loyal alumni. We endowed a scholarship at the College, and made regular annual gifts to the Wooster Fund. Physical therapists and academics don’t often earn enough to make headline grabbing contributions. For now, our annual gifts will go elsewhere. Likewise, as our grandchildren look for colleges that will enhance their lives, we cannot recommend Wooster anymore. That’s really too bad!