David J. Lowry

David James Lowry, gentlemen, farmer, of Moneta, VA died Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016 at Roanoke Memorial Hospital. David, age 73, was born Nov. 25, 1942 at Crittenton Hospital, Detroit, Michigan, to Estus Albert (originally of Bedford County, VA) and Janet (Margison) Lowry (originally of Blackpool, England). David, an electrical and computer engineer by training, lived and worked coast to coast and around the world, following his passion and excellence in design, building, and entrepreneurism. David was brilliant, energetic, ethical, and dogged in pursuit in both public and private matters. David, a Navy Veteran, served his country during the years following the Korean Conflict, receiving hospital corpsman training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Chicago, IL and operating room technician training at Bethesda (MD) Naval Hospital. He served aboard the USS Enterprise and in Guantanamo Naval Hospital, Cuba where he became an avid scuba diver. He was a retired principal engineer of The Boeing Company. David lived many of his Boeing years in Seattle, Washington, and finished his Boeing career working at NASA in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Following his retirement, David developed his passions for community activism via technological means through the company, Coastline, he founded earlier in his career. Coastline was his gateway to many adventures: Coastline’s Vector Marine, a small business in the Seattle area, built custom crafted sailing yachts known as the Vector 39; Coastline Charters, a sailing charter in the Cape Canaveral area, ran charter trips out of the Cape from aboard his personal Vector 39, “Ransome�; Coastline Systems, a computer design and software development company served many clients with their specialized technology needs. These included many in the healthcare field; work on Y2K issues, web-mastering of community forums, and other projects for family and friends. One particular project led David to spend several years in Cape Town, South Africa. David was an accomplished yachtsman. His sailing adventures aboard his beloved Vector 39 “Ransome� included passages off the coast of Florida, the Seattle area and neighboring islands, the California coast, the waters off Cape Town South Africa, and the epic open ocean passage from Cape Town to the Caribbean. For much of this time, Ransome was literally home for David and Shelley. David chose to spend his final decade in Bedford County, Virginia representing a full circle in his family heritage. The Lowry family, David’s particular branch of it via Marshall Milton Lowry, were large land owners in the ante-bellum Bedford County. David explored that heritage extensively in his time in Virginia, and developed many ties and relationships in the Bedford community. He fought to hold local government accountable, and to govern fairly, openly and intelligently. He co-founded the activist group Bedford Above Board (BAB) which employed the webpage of the same name to inform the citizenry of critical issues of public policy. Today over 11,500 persistent readers have learned to trust BAB as the source of accurate news. His commitment to open government led him to legally compel the county to comply with the Freedom of Information Act. He was instrumental in the fight to forestall the county Board of Supervisors from hastily adopting a little known, ill-conceived and less understood comprehensive rewrite of the zoning ordinance. He was dogged in demanding an open and comprehensive accounting of the proposed county wide water system. David owned a farm in Moneta on which he produced and advocated the benefits of switchgrass. David also sought to inform farmers and farming neighbors of the risks of exposure to land applied sewage sludge (aka bio-solids), which is commonly promoted by sewage disposal companies as a beneficial fertilizer. He was generous in offering his time and talents in data processing and analytics to a wide range of civic efforts from Bedford County’s computer system to the Smith Mountain Lake Charity Home Tour. He was recently instrumental in rescuing the abandoned cemetery of slave and other unmarked ancestors along Highway 460, near Wal-Mart in Bedford. From this, David and others formed the Bedford Historical Slave Foundation (BHSF) a project the family and community members seek to bring full fruition in David’s honor and memory. Please consult www.bedfordhsf.org to follow its progress, become a member, or make memorial donations once charitable giving (501c3) status is granted. David was stricken with cancer which took him away from us too quickly, but his suffering was short. He was preceded in death by his parents, his oldest brother, Marshall Estus Lowry II (formerly of Bedford, VA), and his niece, Marlene Mosher (formerly of Indianola, IA). He is survived by his middle brother, Robert William Lowry, of Palm Coast, FL; wife, Shelley Starr Shoemaker, and cats, “Monet� and “Binkster� of Moneta, VA. David shared a love of all of earth’s creatures great and small, especially those four-legged friends preceding him in death; dogs, “Nipper� and “Boots�, cats, “Derby� and “Coral Mae�, and horse “Mokey�. David is further survived by many adoring nieces and nephews, including Mark (Deb) Lowry of San Francisco Bay, CA; Michaell (Steve) Edwards of Knoxville, IA; Dannette (Lawrence Chew) Lowry of Valparaiso, IN; Daniel Lowry of Ormond by the Sea, FL; Diana (Steve Moon) Lowry of Tacoma, WA; Marshall (Lauren) Lowry III of Green Cove Springs, FL; and Shayhna and Tara Lowry both of Charleston, SC. Numerous grand-nieces and nephews are unnamed here. Extended family include cousins, Ann Talbot Roberts of Harlingen, TX; Pearl Lowry Robertson, Charles (Kim Cherebin) Lowry all of Bedford, VA and Brent Staples of New York City, NY. The family will gather in Bedford at a later date to remember and honor David. Condolences and caring and comforting thoughts may be shared with family and community members who grieve David’s loss at www.bedfordfuneral.com. Arrangements by Bedford Funeral Home, Bedford, VA.