Dennis Michael Lowes

What DIDN'T we learn from Dennis? The man was a walking encyclopedia, especially with regard to trains and railroads. I was at an author talk the other night for the book "Paradise Bronx," and at one point someone mentioned that the house of founding father Gouverneur Morris had been demolished to make way for a railroad. The speaker did not remember offhand which railroad, and I thought to myself, "Dennis would likely just KNOW, and likely also the railroad's entire history." A day later we were in a Christmas store in Manhattan's Little Italy, admiring the wooden nutcrackers, and again I thought to myself when I spotted one dressed as a train engineer, "That would have made Dennis smile."

Such a truly good and generous man, with a mind brimming with knowledge and a soul filled with joy. We were privileged to have known such a man and are diminished by this terrible loss. Much love and condolences to my cousin Barbara and to Dennis's daughter Laurel.