Meet Roz Lowen
Roz Lowen has always been a busy woman; this hasn’t changed as she’s grown older. For the past 9 years, she’s participated in a weekly Italian class at the Lincoln Town Library. She tends two plots in the community garden. She plans to attend three mushroom forays in New England this summer and has committed to presenting at one. She also donates a guided mushroom walk to a charity auction and takes BHC members on an occasional mushroom hunt. In the winter, she still skis and only gave up being an instructor at Loon’s ski school a few years ago. Her summer activities include kayaking, sometimes with BHC members Leslie Dreier or Martin Kessel and Gail Robinson.
How does she do this all at 90? She admits, “I can’t get done with things because there’s too much to do,” and says her activity level makes it hard to keep up with all the family birthdays and occasions through the year. Her solution: each year she designs a calendar for her family with everyone’s special days marked, so no one is forgotten.
Roz was raised in White Plains, NY. Her father ran a dry goods store, and her mother kept the books for the business. She remembers collecting scrap metal during World War II and writing to a cousin who served as a cook in the Army. When the war ended, she felt her parents’ joy as they celebrated in the streets.
Roz attended the University of Michigan but left after her sophomore year to marry. During the Korean War, her husband served in the Army. She lived with her parents then and went to Hunter College. She completed her undergraduate degree at Bradley University in Peoria IL, where the couple moved after her husband returned.
This turned out to be just the beginning of Roz’s education, for after another move to Bedford, NY, she started taking classes at the New York Botanical Garden. She found them intensely interesting, especially the courses in mycology (the study of fungi). At City College of New York, she could take courses practically for free, and so, even while she was raising her three boys, she began amassing college credits, eventually earning her master’s degree in biology, with an emphasis in mycology.
She had one particularly inspiring teacher who became a lifelong friend. He encouraged her to continue for her PhD, also in biology. She was initially unconvinced, but then, always curious, she saw yet another class she wished to take. Once again, course by course, she moved through the degree requirements. By 1984, two of her sons were married, the youngest was in college and she had finished her coursework. Her husband’s job took them to London, and there, she was able to do the research for her thesis.
When her marriage ended in 1989, Roz was unable to find a suitable job in her field. She worked instead for the Health Department on a project to get TB patients to comply with their medication regimen. She did, however, continue to do research at the Botanical Gardens as an adjunct researcher.
Roz learned to ski as a young adult. After her divorce, she became a member of the ski group in Westport CT. Through social connections she made on ski trips, she met a man who skied at Loon and visited him. She tried out for Loon’s ski school, loved the experience of being an instructor and made many friends. Though the relationship didn’t work out, she liked the area so well that in 2004 she bought her condo in Lincoln. “I wanted to be part of a Jewish community,” she said, so soon after this move, she joined BHC.
In every phase of her life, Roz has nurtured relationships. When her 90th birthday arrived on May 9, three parties honored her. One was given by the friends who study Italian with her. The second was given by friends from her skiing instructor days.
The third was given by her three sons and their families over three days at a bed & breakfast in York Beach ME. Her entire family filled 11 rooms – her three boys, their wives, her 7 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Her sister and friends came on one of the days and added to the festivities. They celebrated the milestone birthday of a woman who has clearly excelled at friendship and at squeezing the most she can out of life.