Cora Marguerite Rowe

Cora Marguerite Rowe Cora Marguerite Rowe, a Pleasant Hill resident for 42 years, died July 28 in her home with her family at her side. She was 83. Rowe was a member of the Pleasant Hill Historical Society, serving in various capacities as board member, recording secretary, fundraiser and guest speaker. She was recognized numerous times for her devoted service and contributions to preserving the city's history. In 2003 the Historical Society created the Rowe-McNally Pioneer award, which is named for Rowe and her friend Mary McNally. The award is given annually to longtime Pleasant Hill residents. The idea of making history available to future generations was important to Rowe, who helped to organize efforts to donate her grandparents' home in Clark, South Dakota, to that city's historical society. Following the dedication of the property in 2000, the home and its surrounding land became part of the Beauvais Heritage Museum, a public history center honoring the pioneers who founded Clark. Rowe, who was known to her family and friends as Marguerite or Mimi, was born and raised in Clark, SD, and moved to San Diego in the early 1940s. During World War II she volunteered in various capacities, eventually becoming the editor of the Coast Guard newsletter. During those years she met her husband, Frank A. Rowe, a 1st Lt. in the 101st Airborne Division. As a paratrooper who participated in the D-Day invasion, Mr. Rowe was decorated with the Purple Heart, Bronze and Silver Star medals. After the war the Rowes faced another battle during the McCarthy era. Mr. Rowe was among the first group of teachers to refuse to sign the unconstitutional Levering Loyalty Oath, and Mrs. Rowe joined her husband in a decades-long struggle to have the oath overturned. With the publication of his award-winning book, The Enemy Among Us: A Story of Witch-Hunting in the McCarthy Era," the couple worked together, writing, speaking and advocating as outspoken champions of the First Amendment, academic freedom and civil liberties, a cause to which they were both devoted. Following her husband's death in 1985, Mrs. Rowe established the Frank A. Rowe scholarship fund at Laney College. A gentle, refined woman with a beautiful smile, Rowe also worked as a special education teacher and an environmental researcher. She was a poet, writer, sculptor and puppet-maker, and she loved the arts. She frequently attended museum, theater and symphony events, and she also enjoyed organic gardening and spending time in her yard, the centerpiece of which is a 125-year old heritage oak tree. She served on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union and did volunteer work for Congressman George Miller, the Pleasant Hill Senior Center and the Ecology Center. She was a supporter of the Mt. Diablo Peace Center, the Onstage Theater and Habitat for Humanity. Her collected papers, along with those of her husband's, will be housed in the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley. Despite her other accomplishments, Rowe was always proud to describe herself as a homemaker and mother. Preceded in death by her husband, Frank A. Rowe, and daughter, Patricia Rowe, she is survived by her daughters, Nancy Rowe and Georgia Rowe, sons-in-law Byron Allred and Thomas Martin, and grandson Markley Rowe McGrill, all of Martinez; sisters Dorothy Faucher, Irene Wiswell, Toni Lapka, Kittie Perreira and brother Lynn Lorenz; and many loving nieces and nephews, extended family, friends, neighbors and colleagues. At her request, no memorial services are planned. Contributions in her name may be made to the Pleasant Hill Historical Society or the Mt. Diablo Peace Center.