VT Stories Oral History with David Lowe, September 27, 2015 (Ms2016-015)

Ren H: This is Ren Harman. It's May 13, 2015 at about 2 PM. So if you could just state your name, date, place of birth, and kind of tell me a little bit about your family and growing up.

David Lowe: Sure. I'll be glad to do that. My name is David Lowe. I was born in Huntington, West Virginia in 1941. My parents, my father was a school teacher, my mother was a school teacher. Both of my maternal and my paternal families were working class, blue collar families. One grandfather worked in the oil rigs over in that part of West Virginia. The other grandfather was a rural mail carrier. Lived in a small town. Everybody knew everybody. You knew not to misbehave because everybody knew your parents. And that had it's, I'd say it was a good way to grow up. 1:00You learned accountability right from the beginning in a small town where everybody knew everybody. The church was a strong part of our growing up life. Probably the center of social life in a little town. I had a brother and sister. I was the oldest of three. Was an active young boy. Was in scouting. Was in 4-H. Maintained a lot of activity and probably had my first job mowing grass when I was eight or nine years old. My parents, we were brought up to work hard and be self-reliant. I think I picked up early on that and found it kind of satisfying, quite frankly. Was active in sports in high school. Played basketball, played baseball. Loved the sports and I think that was an important part of our growing up. 2:00Small town church family, and athletics probably defined the world I grew up in back in those days.

Ren H: So you said both of your parents were in education. What role did that play in your growing up?

David Lowe: Well, obviously my parents valued education. And our dinner time conversations always seemed to center around mom and dad sharing thoughts or situations that occurred in school. And as I think back, they talked about success and young people who were doing things that really, and they talked about young people who were making mistakes that were, and they never preached it to us, but by listening to parents talk about it, they were defining values. So I think (inaudible) my life values were defined listening to my parents talk about their experiences as teachers. 3:00I never thought about it at the time, but in retrospect, I think a lot of it took place there.

Ren H: What subjects did they teach?

David Lowe: Dad was primarily a math teacher and mom had what was called a "standard normal" degree. That's something less than a four-year degree. She taught in a one-room 6-grade school, whatever had to be taught that day. Probably the thing my mom taught best was life skills.

Ren H: So when did you first start thinking about college and how did you end up choosing Virginia Tech?

David Lowe: Well, I can't remember when I did not realize that I would be going to college. It was sort of like the next step you would take. When I started thinking about where, I had developed a great 4:00appreciation for the military. My father was a naval officer in World War II. And as the war ended my mother took my brother and me and drove to California where dad was stationed to be with him and bring him home. And one day in my childhood memory, I remember standing on the docks in San Francisco when the liberty ships were coming back. And there were thousands of these guys leaning over the rails of the ships screaming and hollering, throwing stuff to these, these two little boys standing on the dock - my brother and I. And that had an impact on me about, I guess, didn't understand it at the time, but what America and our military service sacrificed, how it kind of manifested itself, so that stuck with me. I thought at one time I might want to go to one of the service academies, but I realized I did not want a military career, and that was more 5:00for those who were career-focused. But I liked the idea of the military structure as a learning developing opportunity. At the same time I thought I wanted to be an engineer. And I heard about VPI that has a military school that had a good engineering basis. And it was only, at that time, maybe four hours from home. Four or five hours from home I think. So it was kind of, that's how VPI came into it. Military opportunity and engineering school. Four or five hours from home. And I could get in. [Laughs]

Ren H: So your first semester on campus, what year was that?

David Lowe: The fall of 1959.

Ren H: So you first step out on the campus of Virginia Tech, can you describe that, what it looked like? What were your initial thoughts and feelings were? I mean, had you been there before?

David Lowe: Well, we had come through Blacksburg. 6:00My father brought me to Blacksburg in the summer to be fitted for a uniform. You had to come over and be fitted and measured ahead of time at the tailor shop, so we'd done that. So I'd seen the campus, but really hadn't spent any time here. So when we came to school, all I remember is mom and dad dropping me off on the curb over in front of Eggleston. Setting my stuff on the curb. Big hugs. They got in the car and off they drove, and I kind of looked around at this place, not knowing anybody, and to me it was big. Small town I grew up in, this was a big place. And the architecture is so formal and impressive and the stone emotes something that's hard to describe, but you know it's there. The continuity of the campus and, I realized I was entering into a new world from the small country town I'd grown up in. And you know, it happened 7:00soon because the fresh, the rat system as we referred to it then, was pretty dominant, and reasonably severe. Severe in that you realized you were going to be in a different world for a while. There wasn't any question about that, and I adjusted to it. I was ready for it. I adjusted to it. In fact I think I kind of thrived with it. The discipline, the order was good and you learned to make use of your time and you learned you could control yourself in ways that you would never have learned if it hadn't been forced on you. Self-control I found in life is a pretty damn good thing, and a pretty important thing to have. And we were forced to learn self-control then. And then you realized that you were rewarded for it because you realized a lot of good comes from those subtle things.

Ren H: Right.

David Lowe: So, I did, I liked the Corps. Had friends from that first, stepping on campus, they are still lifetime friends today. I think that's kind of the starting point of it. Academics were demanding.

Ren H: What was your major?

David Lowe: I was going to be an engineer. The little town I grew up in was near Huntington and International Nickel had a large manufacturing plant in Huntington, West Virginia, had research labs there. And so at least in the world I grew up in deciding what you wanted to do in life was more driven by how you could economically care for yourself than fulfillment and satisfaction. I don't ever remember being talked to about being fulfilled and satisfied. I remember talking about where can you get a good job that you can earn a good living. And I was good in math 9:00and International Nickel was there. And then when I came here I decided to be a co-op. So I stayed the first three quarters in school and then the first summer I co-oped at International Nickel. And in co-oping I learned I didn't want to be an engineer. So I came back to school and changed curriculums. Wonderful part of being a co-op, that's what engineers do. That doesn't turn me on. Ren H: When we were talking about this the other day and that's sometimes the problem, is people are trained in their field that they don't, and based on curriculum, then we get out on the field it's drastically different than maybe what they expected. So when you changed majors what did you change to then?

David Lowe: Well, I changed to a general business major. There was no Pamplin school here at the time of course. Because I thought I might be interested in law. And the direction to law school would have been through what was available in the business curriculum at the time. It wasn't really pre-law, but it's where you go. So that's really the direction I thought I wanted to go was to 10:00law. So I kind of focused the course selections the next three years on things that would help prepare me for law school.

Ren H: Were there any notable professors that you had that were obviously influential in your life somehow?

David Lowe: Well, memorable and influential are probably two different descriptions. There was a professor named Duke Baird who taught marketing and advertising types of courses. He's acknowledged in Dale Carnegie's book "How to Win Friends and Influence People." Duke Baird was a colleague, to some degree, of Dale Carnegie. He was an interesting man. By even today's standards he was raw, but he was captivating as a lecturer. So I remember Duke Baird. But 11:00interesting, Duke Baird, the Mayor of Blacksburg, Mayor Barringer taught in the business school. I remember him. Helen Miles was my English teacher. Helen Miles' husband was Hugh Miles who was a professor. And Helen was a motherly type person who not only was my freshman English teacher, but then sort of became a mother away from home for the remaining three or four years. Mark Oliver. Mark Oliver was responsible for alumni relations activities at the time. His office was over in War Memorial. And I got to know Mark and he was one of those guys that in a soft-spoken way could kind of tell you what you needed to know even though it did not make you feel like you shouldn't have already known it. Jim Dean, who was the Dean of Students was another fatherly 12:00sort of guy who I remember well. He'd sit back in his office, put his feet up, and his pipe and he'd say, David, and because of the leadership roles I had in the class and later in the Corps I was fortunate to be able to have more contact with like the Dean and people like that. I genuinely felt that these people cared about what I was doing and what I was going to do. They made me feel they cared, and that helped. That added to the commitment and care, the value the VPI was to me at the time and certainly has been since then.

Ren H: Can you talk a little bit about the leadership roles? You were telling us a little bit earlier about those.

David Lowe: My leadership roles?

Ren H: Yes, your leadership.

David Lowe: Yeah, well, you know, the first one was becoming president of the class. And that sort of set the stage for the rest of my, I was in a lot of activities here. Probably the first semi-leadership opportunity 13:00was when I was given a bid to the German Club. In those days you didn't pledge or seek membership in those. It was sort of a quiet process, at night somebody knocked on your door and said, "We give you this invitation." In my case, the two guys knocked on my door the same night and they gave me an invitation to the Cotillion Club and the German Club. The Cotillion was the other social organization on campus. I chose the German club. I saw a lot of a cotillion Club and have lots of good friends from the Cotillion as well as the German club. But the German club was important to me and it provided an opportunity to continue to develop leadership and to display some leadership. It's the oldest student organization on the campus as you probably know. And so that was an opportunity. I found myself being asked to participate in things as school went 14:00along. And then of course being named the regimental commander at the end of our junior year was, that was really, one, it was totally unexpected. I had no idea that I would even be considered for something like that, and it just created so many wonderful opportunities to lead and to learn leadership. But most importantly probably to build lifelong friendships. The regimental staff at the time, the guys, we're still good friends. We've worked together now what, 52-53 years, Reed Schweickert, Johnny Bates, Sykes Dehart. We remain friends and we get together periodically. And we've all, kind of in our own way, were successful in life. None of us in the same direction, but we all went 15:00out and did our thing, if you will. And we reflect back on the good times we had together as leaders of the class.

Ren H: Can you talk about some of those good times?

David Lowe: You mean during school?

Ren H: During school. Yes.

David Lowe: Well, absolutely. This was not a social school. We went to class 5 days a week. Classes went from Monday to Saturday, so your weekend started at noon on Saturday. And of course there were still Corps activities, but we had a big formal dance weekend every quarter, and that was quite an event. A formal dance Friday night, formal dance Saturday night, tea dance Saturday afternoon. Dates came in from the southern colleges from back home. And there's where Helen Miles comes in again to play because many of these southern colleges required that the girl stay with someone who was officially a 16:00chaperone. Mrs. Miles was always the host to my date. And Mrs. Miles would always sign the letters to send back to the schools to tell the girls' colleges that the girl would be properly chaperoned. And then Mrs. Miles would put her hand on my shoulder and she'd say, "Now, David, you understand." And I said, "Yes ma'am." And so when they said to be in at 11:00 Mrs. Miles said, "And I know she'll be in at 11:00." I said, "Mrs. Miles, you got to bed and get a good night's sleep." And she did and when my date got in I have no recollection. [Laughs] Dance weekends were big. Other than that we worked hard to study. Memorable events? Well, the VMI, VPI rivalry at Thanksgiving was memorable. Certainly the inauguration of T. Marshall Hahn was memorable, because he came in with such a fresh, exciting view of VPI. I was honored to speak on behalf of 17:00the student body at his inauguration, and still have my notes where I pledged our support to him. And I remember he called the regimental staff in his office probably in the fall of his first year here. Said he wanted to talk to us about what we thought if he made the Corps voluntary. And you might expect, the leaders of the Corps were outspoken in how we thought that would damage the Corps and the negative impact it would have on the Corps, and we went away feeling we'd been listened to. Of course Marshall went ahead and made the Corps voluntary because he'd already made up his mind to do it, and it was the right thing to do. He lives over the hill here and he and I see each other occasionally and chat and I kid him about how he conned me that day by asking what I really thought when his mind had already been made up. But it was, I didn't see the big change. I saw the man come into office, 34 years old and young and bright and full of energy. And such a contrast to Walter 18:00Newman who had been the president for the preceding three years, so that was interesting. A lot of things, a lot of activities went on the campus. It was sort of the culture of the day I guess. It was commonplace if you achieved something you got thrown into the duck pond. There was silly stuff like that; you've probably heard those stories. Panty raids at Hillcrest were not unknown.

Ren H: And what is that exactly? [Laughs]

David Lowe: What is that? Well, I mean, the guys went down and screamed to the girls and hollered and taunted the girls to throw panties. It was all in good fun. It wasn't anything unbecoming, but it was something that wouldn't be okay today. It was clearly gender, I'm trying to think of other 19:00unusual things. The rat system, if the hazing and stuff went on today, some of it would be, you would go to jail for it today, that went on then. It didn't hurt us. We never thought anything about it, but America's moved ahead and the universities moved ahead in some of those things, but they're great memories.

Ren H: And when you talk about a lot of these names, Marshall Hahn, the Miles family, you think about the buildings that are named on campus, Miles Dormitory, Hahn Hall. So you seem like you were at Virginia Tech at a time when there was a lot of, a lot of things were changing, a lot of these significant, prominent figures were really coming in to the university.

David Lowe: Well, I'd say absolutely so. I mean, I think the arrival of Marshall Hahn was the beginning of the future of VPI. Before him had 20:00been erudite academicians who were leading in traditional ways that Virginia, with all the names we'd had before that. Marshall had been here before, so he understood what was here, but he'd been out and seen some other places and come back. So he came and Dr. Cassell, Stuart Cassell who was the financial guy left shortly in that period, so there was a lot of change at the top, but America was changing. More importantly, I think, America was changing and it was also the arrival of John Kennedy. And so you went from Dwight Eisenhower and Harry Truman and those traditional leaders to this young, handsome New Englander, so America was changing. And then coincident with that was the unrest that had begun to develop in America with Viet Nam. I mean when I left here Viet Nam was just a minor footnote. And of course over 21:00the next two, three or four years it got pretty big. But not only was VPI changing, but I think America was in a state of change. I was here to sense the beginning of it.

Ren H: We'll come back to some of the Virginia Tech stuff, but once you graduated, where did you go from there?

David Lowe: Well, my intention was to go on to law school. I was admitted to W&L and UVA law schools, but I also had an Air Force obligation. So two things came into play that changed that. One, I also fell in love, and so I got married. Decided to go do the Air Force and get that obligation out of the way, and then with the idea I would come back to law school. But in the interim two children were born to that marriage, and now I had to think about being a breadwinner, so law school got 22:00dropped. I went to work for the telephone company, what was part of the old Bell system. C&B Telephone Company as you may have heard that name, which later became Bell Atlantic which became Verizon. So that's where I went to work and spent the next 35 years with the telephone company. Most of my work, I started back in West Virginia. And the president of the company at the time was a VPI guy who was a German club man who had recruited me to go to work for the telephone company. It's funny how those things fall in place. Lee Tate was his name and you'll see his name in a lot of the history. But anyway, telephone company in West Virginia, Washington, Richmond, New Zealand, and I concluded my career back in West Virginia as President of the West Virginia company. And 23:00then did some work in helping build a wireless company. And then Sharon and I decided to come to Blacksburg and retire in 2000.

Ren H: So when someone says Virginia Tech, what does that mean to you?

David Lowe: Hmm. Well, Virginia Tech is and has been an integral part of my life. It provided a pathway I guess, or the gateway for a small town country boy to get out and get a sense of what the world's all about, and then it helped prepare me to go into the world and do okay. And I attribute a lot of that to the values and the principles I learned from Virginia Tech. I think the honor system was hugely important. I think the words that are defined on the pylons are hugely important. I think 24:00each pylon is a living concept. Ut Prosim is so much more than just a Latin phrase. And for those of us who lived it and worked it, I think you still see it today. I think Dr. Sands acknowledged that early on when he came here. We put the honor system with Ut Prosim and with the words that are engraved on the pylons, so there's real value. This is more than just a place, it's a culture. It's been very important in my life from that standpoint.

Ren H: So what was the importance of the honor system and how did you see that as being a crucial part?

David Lowe: Well, the honor system said you won't lie, cheat, steal nor tolerate 25:00those among you who do. Well, if everybody lives by that there's a lot of second guessing and gamesmanship that doesn't have to be in human relations whether it's you and I, man to man, or whether it's societal. It's a wonderful basis on which to build businesses, to build personal relationships. And I saw it work then and I also saw the consequences when people chose to deny it. One of the earliest memories back to Virginia Tech memories, was my Rat Year. 2 o'clock in the morning, you've triggered it, I'm glad you raised that question, because talking about it triggers it, the bugle sounded at 2 o'clock in the morning. And the bugles always told you what the uniform of the day would be, the sound of the bugle, and the bugle's call was for raincoats. So we piled out and put on raincoats and it's not raining. And I'm a rat, so you piled out, you stand at attention beside your door until you get-- We marched outside and we 26:00formed, in formation in a quadrangle behind Eggleston Hall, in that quadrangle. And the upper quad Cadets, we hear a drum beat, brrrrm. And they're marching from the upper quad down there, and the whole Corps forms in that quadrangle at 2 o'clock in the morning. It's pitch black. There's not a light on. The only sound is the brrrrm of the drums. You know where I'm going with this. It stops and a voice comes out and says, I don't remember the exact words, but in essence, "the Virginia Tech Cadet Honor Court this evening, (date), cadet was found guilty of [blank] and is hereby dismissed from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, never again to re-enroll." That's in essence what it said. Silence. Drum roll. Back to the dorms.

Ren H: Wow.

David Lowe: That happened one other time in my four years. But that was a drumming out ceremony that said to me 27:00the guys were serious about this thing, and if this number of people are that serious about it, if they're that serious about it there must be some value to it. It must have value. I worked with the Honor Court one of my years. So got the opportunity to see it in operation. But I have placed great value in being forced to pay attention and to learn those things and it's a lesson. I often come back to it in life.

Ren H: So how do you see the importance of the Honor Court being student ran? Because it's still that way today, you know, it is student-centered.

David Lowe: Well. I think it probably ought to be student-centered.

Ren H: Yeah.

David Lowe: It was then. We had no involvement or interference in any way from any administrator that I ever recall. I think 28:00the [key] puts a heavy responsibility on students. And I think the thing in our day, you had to go through a pretty thorough indoctrination so that we were all grounded on what it was and what it wasn't. Now, if the administration kind of kept their eye on it from the side and didn't-they may have done that. And if I were the administration I would probably do that too, but I'd try to find a way that does it that's in no way seen as overseeing or policing the function. But I think the honor system is very important. God know, you look around America today and we'd be a better country if there was a little more honor.

Ren H: Absolutely. Right.

David Lowe: We talked- You know we understood what the words on the pylons meant, and I've referenced it. Those to me differentiate this school from other schools. And in my corporate life I've served on boards 29:00at one, two, I've attended two other universities, University of Pittsburgh and MIT. I've served on advisory boards at three other universities. None of those, to my knowledge, did I ever had a sense of this commitment to the core set of values that I think underlies VPI. And I think this is very, very critical to having achieved the success that's been achieved here.

Ren H: So what else do you think makes Virginia Tech unique?

David Lowe: Oh well, you know, we've got crazy school colors that we can laugh about. We got a crazy, ugly mascot that's become as lovable as any could be. Very unique things like that. And 30:00we've got a beautiful setting out here in the mountains. You're kind of isolated. We're a part of the world but you can kind of be isolated out here, and a little bit removed from some of the stuff that goes on in the heavier populated parts. I think that the diversity of student body is certainly good. There are areas that are continually looking to be better. We wouldn't have students from all over the world wanting to come here unless there was something world-class, and I think the world's come to realize that. It's a much better school than the one I attended 60 years ago. You can get a lot better degree today, but you can also get through a little easier too. There's both sides to that spectrum.

Ren H: Can you talk a little bit more about that?

David Lowe: Well, there wasn't as much emphasis from my perspective in 31:00making sure, I think the university is focused on helping students achieve today, and I think that's very positive. I think the focus more in my day was being damn sure you learned what you better learn. If you learned it, you get through it, but flunking out wasn't uncommon. I don't know whether it is today or not. And there were faculty members who clearly weren't nearly as concerned about whether you-about anything other than if you learned what they were trying to teach you. The rest of it, if you didn't learn it, it was your fault. I think you can find ways to get a degree today with less effort by picking and choosing than you could in my day. But if you were to pick and choose to really get a world class 32:00education, man it's here. I mean, you go down to Goodwin Hall and the laboratories that are in there, as well as all the other things that are in there, we didn't have any of that in my day. We didn't even have a business college. The business college was formed as a unit I think in 1961, '60 or '61. Before that it was just random courses.

Ren H: So throughout your career, once you graduated from Virginia Tech, how did-you talked about when you were recruited to your first job, the President was a Virginia Tech alum, so how did you see Virginia Tech kind of popping out throughout your life once you graduated?

David Lowe: Well, I think I looked for Virginia Tech as I went through life. I don't know that it popped up as much as I was consciously looking for Hokies, because I had pride in it. I had a respect for other people who shared what I had shared. So whether I was walking through Weisbaden, 33:00Germany in 1967 and saw the guy coming towards me that I had served in the Corps with and there we would be reconnected and stood and talked, to know where each other were. And then in my adult life, as President of the Alumni Association a few years ago, I traveled to many chapters around the country and just love connecting with Hokies who you share this common bond with here. So I was always on the lookout for men and women who had come to Virginia Tech.

Ren H: So can you talk a little bit more about your military experience and serving with other Hokies. I find that fascinating.

David Lowe: Well, very honestly, my military experience was very unexciting. I had an administrative job which I didn't particularly care for, but the military didn't ask you what they assigned you. The interesting part was I served in 34:00Northern Maine for awhile, then in France and then in Germany. So I got to experience other cultures. I was in France when Charles De Galle pulled France out of NATO in the late, about 1967, so I participated in the removal of US forces from France and a lot of the political things that were in the air at that time. But my military career was undistinguished in every way. I served well and did what I was asked and when I was through I got out. I have a lot of classmates who made much more significant and distinguished contributions more than I did.

Ren H: So in what ways are you currently involved with the university and maybe in the past ten or 15 years, how have you been involved with Virginia Tech?

David Lowe: Well, I've been involved with a group of alumni who focused on 35:00reinvigorating the Corps beginning about 20 years ago. We saw the Corps about to go, and there were those who wanted the Corps to go. And I understand that. But there are those of us who believed the Corp was an integral part of the value system of the University. So I've been, I've served on the Corp Alumni Board for several years now, participated in efforts to rejuvenate the Corps and to reestablish the value of the Corps as an integral part of the university. That's been important. I served on the Pamplin Advisory Council for ten or 12 years, from the time I was in corporate life. I'm past president of the German Club Alumni Foundation. I've served on the General Alumni Board several years. I'm past president of the Alumni Association and was honored by being made an 36:00honorary lifetime board member to the alumni, which is special. For 12 years, I chaired the operating board for the River Course beginning with the university's purchase of it in 2002. During that time, we worked with Pete Dye in the reconstruction of the course as well as the construction of the $5 million clubhouse. It enables me to kind of keep those linkages across the years, to keep alive the value systems that I think ultimately keep the university as one, this core set of values that go beyond how many degrees you offer and things like that. Sharon and I became very involved on April 16th. The day that happened I heard it on the news and immediately went down on campus, and went over to the Inn. The Inn manager was somebody I knew and I said, "Write my name down. If anything comes up where you need something, call me." And quite frankly I didn't give it anymore thought. That was on a Monday, if you remember. On Tuesday night at 11:30, my phone rang here and they said, "Mr. Lowe, this is.." I forget the guy's name who was the manager at the Inn, he says, 37:00"We have a problem." And I said, "What's that?" And he said, "The parents of one of the victims have just gotten here," and he says, "The closest room we have for them is in Lexington. Could you help?" So I woke up Sharon and I said, "Sharon, we're going to have a house guest." So she got up, opened up the house. I said, "I'll be there in ten minutes." So I pulled on my clothes and went to the Inn. And Mike and Peggy Herbstritt, the parents of Jeremy, had just gotten here. They'd been in Boston for the Boston Marathon where their daughter had run. And Jeremy was supposed to go to Boston to run in the Boston Marathon, but because of academic reasons he decided to stay here. And they took me in and introduced me to Mike and Peggy. It's difficult to talk about, but we embraced, got in the car and came up here. Mike and I sat out there on the deck for, I don't know, three or four hours. He talked about how similar the 38:00topography is here to Penn State. He was on the faculty at Penn State. Not on the faculty; he worked in the facilities branch at Penn State. And Mike and I sat there and Sharon and Peggy sat in here. So they stayed with us for the next couple of days and I took them to the campus and kind of fathered, not fathered, wrong word, what did I do? I looked after them, because they were hugely vulnerable as any parent would be. Hugely vulnerable and the press was pretty insensitive at times. So I stayed with Mike and Peggy and tried to get a sense of what exposure they would be okay with and what they wouldn't, and protect them from the rest of it. Then they came back and stayed with 39:00us for graduation when the students were honored. And we've kept not a close relationship, but we certainly have an awareness of each other and we care about them. But we chose not to press that issue because they needed to decide how they wanted to maintain, what linkage they wanted to keep here. And I'm happy they were back recently, so that was an opportunity to serve, and I'm fortunate. Those kind of things you kind of feel golly, something was, why did I go down and say, "If you need anything call me." I don't know why that happened. I believe there are some things that kind of just, if there's a design or designer, sometimes when that happens.

Ren H: Yes. We were talking the other day about how some things just happen for a reason. We don't really know why. 40:00But it's interesting to think about the time, probably when you were talking about Marshall Hahn's inauguration. That class from 19--between the '60s and early '70s, this alumni outreach that kind of spawned from those years. And what's interesting I think about Virginia Tech and this question that I pose to you is why, I mean, I just wonder why Virginia Tech alumni, especially from that era, is so involved with these things as far as alumni associations and organizing these things and being a part of these organizations. It just seems like a snapshot. I mean, there were contributions before and after, but it's just for some reason, I think that timeframe is really interesting.

David Lowe: Well, at that age in life it's a time of change for you. You had the personal time of change in your life. You're going from your parents' 41:00home and being a child to establishing yourself, so it's a change of time. And I think we felt there was change going on here, and as I alluded to in an earlier comment, there was change going on in America. And suddenly you feel you're in the middle of change. And yet you felt good about it because we'd become grounded in values and principles that would help us successfully navigate change. And a lot of those values and principles were things not that we heard about here; I'd heard about, I'd been brought up hearing about it. But the life experiences here helped give meaning to those values and to those principles and this stuff works. You know it works in life. And our experiences here helped us understand that. And in sharing it together then we shared the cementing of those values and principles and this was the place that 42:00provided the foundation for that to happen. Is that why we're still as close as we are? I think it has something to do with it.

Ren H: There's some type of commitment to where you've learned all these things and what it did for you personally in your own life.

David Lowe: We learned it as it affected our own life and we learned it together as a group. I mean, the classes around me are pretty strong classes. I guess that's back to what you were talking about. Sam Lionberger was president of the class of '62. In those days, the underclass sort of helped support the upper-class when it came to Ring Dance for example. We did certain work. It was the way you earned your way through the process. So Sam and I knew each other from the time I first became president of the class beneath him and we hung together, and likewise the class of '64 behind me. The 43:00other thing is though, the freshman system was strong. And if you recall or know how that worked, the sophomore class was generally the driver of the rat system. So if you drove it, I remember the sophomores, the guys who were ahead of me driving me when I was a rat, could be tough as nails on me, but somehow through it, they expressed a care and a concern that I succeed. But they weren't going to make it easy for me, and so you came to value that. You realized hard work and care doesn't always show itself up in niceties. Care sometimes shows itself in demands and in expectations. And I think that's an important principle of life. As a father, my kids know I care because I had expectations and demands on them growing up. But things are tough; I care. 44:00It's easy to be easy. And I think all of that is part of that culture we went through in a time of general change. Psychologists may say David is crazy, but that's the only way I know how to describe it.

Ren H: Right. So when you talk about, we keep referencing back to this change, this changing era that you were- throughout time what changes have you seen as far as just anything interms of the University? From the time that you were there and through the years, what kind of changes have you seen?

David Lowe: Well, the University has certainly continually raised its academic standards and expectations. As I alluded to earlier, it's a much better academic university than it was when I was a student, and I think it's continued to look for ways to do that. It's 45:00recognized that the value comes from lots of different directions and nobody owns the solution to get it there. Hence, I mean, the term "diversity" gets thrown around. I don't like it because there's certain, I think constraining connotations to go with diversity. I think learning to appreciate the value of all of our differences has been occurring. Virginia Tech was a little bit of a, you know, it was kind of a little Virginia with a certain cultural-and it's gotten bigger. It's come to recognize the value. Look at the change taking place in leadership today. It's not from within, it's from without. The new provost, the new president and that's going to make it better, as long as the core principles that have gotten strong are sustained and maintained, and I 46:00think they will be. At least that's from the things that Dr. Sands says. He certainly appreciates those things. I'm very positive and optimistic about that. It's seeing itself as part of the world. Not a little place to isolate out in the mountains of Virginia and get a college degree. But it's seeing itself as a world institution. Campus in Switzerland. Campus in Northern Virginia. The best is still ahead I think for VPI.

Ren H: So what kind of changes or recommendations would you like to see? As someone who has this vested interested in this University?

David Lowe: I don't think I have any great insight. I think to continue to 47:00embrace the world while not losing sight of these values that I keep coming back to. We can embrace the world, take our values to the world, and I think if anything I'd like to see happen is more efforts to take our values to the world. We should not be timid about our values. And in the world of political correctness if standing for your values means you're politically incorrect, politically incorrect and stand for what you believe. I think that will assure sustaining progress here if we can do that, and I don't think that's easy to do. Easy to say, but not necessarily easy to do. The integrity, the academic process is vital. The continuation of the honor 48:00system as a creditable part of the University is important. All the student activities that make Ut Prosim alive- What do they call it, the Big Event?

Ren H: The Big Event, yeah.

David Lowe: The Big Event, if all these things that stimulate student involvement beyond themselves and beyond academia, because the world is beyond those things. So understanding it and recognizing the value of it - pretty important.

Ren H: So what would you like to be most remembered for?

David Lowe: I just, I mean the people that I've worked with know that I care 49:00deeply about the University. I try to- I don't- Being remembered I'm not sure is even important to me. Finding, doing something of value as long as I can be of value is important to me, but I don't really care about the remembering part of it. I find a lot of fulfillment in finding ways to do what hopefully is a contribution of some sort. Otherwise, I'm not sure why you keep getting up in the morning unless you're giving something back. So that's- Two of my kids are Hokies. Don't think they ever considered anyplace else, and I never 50:00encouraged them. They knew how I felt about it. And they'd come here and they'd seen it and smelled it, so they knew what it was. My youngest daughter told us she wasn't coming here. She was considering MIT and she was considering- She's a very bright girl, but little did we know it was all a ruse. She had applied for early admission without telling us, and then got her admission and said, "By the way, Dad"- Reveled in the fact that she pulled it over, but she didn't want her dad's involvement. She's going to get it on her own. She wanted to make sure I didn't exercise anything to influence her coming here. She's now a Navy doctor, a lieutenant commander in the Navy. So anyway, that's probably-to know that your children, for whatever reason saw it as something they wanted to do and they had to read something into what they heard from their 51:00dad. That said, I think I want that experience too.

Ren H: It sounds like they saw what Virginia Tech I think probably meant to you and then do you think that's probably what influenced them to choose the University?

David Lowe: Oh, I think so. I mean, they knew how important it was to me. And of course throughout the years I stayed involved here, so they heard me talking about it and I assume that's what influenced them. They both are very proud Hokies. They have kids that are already talking about being Hokies, but they're hardly old enough to know what it means.

Ren H: So did you have, wrapping up here, did you have any difficult experiences or negative experiences, while you were in college or later on, or anything that you would want to talk about?

David Lowe: You know, my four years here was a hard, busy, challenging, fulfilling four years. I had challenges and concerns along the way. But nothing that I think I look back on with any bit of oh wows. I think the experiences I've had here, particularly as- I know I sound like a broken record because I come back to these principles and values, guided me through some challenging times in my business life that had I not had the experience and that confidence that these things work, I might have been tempted to look for easier ways through 53:00situations versus principle, ethical ways to the best I can apply those principles and ethics in my, my human frailties. But this has served me well. Don't let go of it now. I had business situations that involved falling back on those principles. Yep. Yep. Some involving, well they were all personnel, human relations kinds of things. I had one situation where I had a boss who had become an alcoholic, and it was going to the point where he wasn't just damaging himself, he was jeopardizing the business. And his boss was in a different state because we were multi-state organized, so there was no way his 54:00boss would know about it. And I struggled with what is my obligation to do, because I wanted to be sure my motives were right. And I came to peace that my motives are not about anything self-serving; they're about my commitment to the organization. So I made contact with his boss and I said, "I need to come and sit down and talk to you." And I did. I explained to him what was going on and why I was concerned. And I said, "I'm not, my purpose here is not to hurt; it's to help both my boss, who is in trouble and is not helping himself and the organization." Anyway, he handled it in such a way that my involvement was never acknowledged in any way, but he took control of it and he fixed it. And the man was salvaged, which is what I wanted to see out of it and life went on. 55:00But it was a time where at least I wanted to be sure my motives were right and not self-serving and not intended in any way to damage anyone else, but to help. And I think my experiences here-back to those values. Make sure you've got your own head right. Think through it. That's kind of a simple one. But that's a simple example of it.

Ren H: Kind of falling back on the principles that learned. And then applying that elsewhere in your life.

David Lowe: Applying the principle in a different circumstance. You have to experience that kind of circumstance.

Ren H: Right.

David Lowe: But this core set of values when applied can always be there, take you through about any circumstance in life. I had other situations that I had to get back in touch with my values, some deeply personal and others organizationally.

Ren H: Can you talk about your class ring a little bit?

David Lowe: Well, you know,love the class ring. It's that symbol that a few of us share. You saw some things on the wall downstairs and there's other things. Of course, you know, I was on the ring committee that helped design it and every ring is unique to every class.

Ren H: It's much nicer than mine. (Laughter)

David Lowe: In our day you didn't have all the choices. Today the classes, they have all kinds of different rings today. But that was the only- you had that one that you had a miniature and quite often the guys gave their girls a miniature as an engagement ring. I gave my mother one. And then when my mother passed, she passed it back to Sharon, so Sharon has the miniature one. Again, it was the camaraderie of being on the ring committee and designing it is probably the memory, because it's a case where everybody kind of had their say and everybody had their thought of what they wanted and we're all proud of what we ended up with.

Ren H: So you kind of see it as almost a symbol of some sort?

David Lowe: Oh sure. Yeah. It's a symbol.

Ren H: Do you wear it every day?

David Lowe: Oh yeah. I don't wear it in the garden. Having the Class of 2013 ring collection named in my honor was hugely special since it came on the 50th anniversary of my graduation- the model of their ring has a prominent place at home. My kids are already debating about who's going to get dad's Tech stuff. [Laughs] Because they know how much dad loves Tech, so they want to get Dad's Tech stuff. Yeah.

Ren H: Well thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us. One thing that we kind of like to end with is, if there was anything that I should have asked you that you thought I was going to, or maybe that you wished I had asked you, was there anything else that you kind of want to say?

David Lowe: No. I think you can gleam from what I've said, 58:00how much the University means to me, and how much I value in my life. That's really the bottom line to all of it. I put a lot into it, but Ive gotten out of it multiples of what I put into it. I'm just thankful I made the decision to come here. Beyond a doubt I feel fortunate to have had the experiences I've had. I can't think of anything else.

Ren H: Great. Thank you so much.

David Lowe: Oh you guys are welcome. It's wonderful talking about it.

Ren H: Thank you. Nice meeting you.

David Lowe: Nice to meet you all.