Harrison Edward Rowe

1927 - 2018

RUMSON, N.J. - Harrison Edward Rowe, 91, of Rumson, N.J. and Cape Elizabeth, passed away peacefully on Oct. 8, 2018, at his son's South Portland home.Harrison was born in 1927 in Waukegan, Ill., to Joan and Edward Rowe. He left home at age 15 to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Harrison enlisted in the US Navy on his seventeenth birthday, serving in World War II as a radar technician and trainer.Upon his honorable discharge in late 1946, Harrison returned to MIT and was able to complete his bachelor's, masters, and doctoral degrees by 1952. During this time, he met and married the love of his life, Alicia Steeves. They enjoyed more than 54 years of marriage before her passing in 2006.Harrison joined Bell Laboratories in 1951 and enjoyed a long career there. Following his retirement, he became a professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology, directing the doctoral studies of his students while also working on the "Star Wars" defense program in the 1980s.Harrison spent most of his career studying wave functions, and authored the Manley-Rowe Relations. He received the IEEE David Sarnoff Award for this work in 1977.Harrison served on the President's Defense Science Board, advising United States Presidents Truman through Reagan. He was an avid skier, sailor and musician. The Stevens Institute of Technology awarded him an honorary Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering in 1988.  The MIT Alumni Association gave him the Morgan Award for volunteer service in 2012. Four children, Amy Rowe, Elizabeth Wilder, Edward Rowe, and Alison Rowe survive him; as do five grandchildren: William, Clara and Grant Wilder; and Max and Christian Rowe. Memorials may be sent to Interlochen Center for the Arts, Memorial Scholarships, PO Box 199, Interlochen, MI 49643 or made to interlochen.org/memorial.Arrangements entrusted to Hobbs Funeral Home, South Portland ME.  Online condolences may be expressed at www.hobbsfuneralhome.com.