Ralph Lowell

Major Ralph Lowell (July 23, 1890–May 15, 1978) was a World War I veteran, banker, and philanthropist from Boston.

Ralph was born in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts to John and Mary Emlen Lowell (Lowell 1899, p 302).^[1] Lowell graduated from Harvard College in 1912. And he married Charlotte Loring (1897–1981) on September 1, 1917.

Career

Ralph Lowell chose to pursue a career in banking and finance, as his family had a long history in business and banking in Boston. He eventually became president of the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company. And in 1955, Ralph received an LL.D. from Bates College.

Ralph was appointed as the sole Trustee of the Lowell Institute, in 1943, upon the death of his cousin, Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell. In cooperation with another Harvard President, James B. Conant, Lowell used his position at the Institute to help found the WGBH radio and television stations. Lowell would serve as Trustee of the Institute for the rest of his life and named his son, John Lowell, to succeed him.

"In 1973, Lowell was one of seven citizens officially recognized as 'Grand Bostonians' for lives that 'mirrored the spirit and dignity that have made Boston and its people so extraordinary.' The years of Lowell's philanthropic and civic works paralleled significant transformations in the political, social, and cultural landscape of Boston, and his remarkable achievements reflect his key role in the making of a 'New Boston' during the mid-twentieth century." (Gelfand 1998)^[2]

Lowell died in Boston on May 15, 1978 at the age of eighty-seven and was buried in the Old Westwood Cemetery in Westwood, Massachusetts.^[3]

See also

• Lowell family
• First Families of Boston
• Lowell Institute

References

1. ^ Lowell, Delmar. (1899) The Historic Genealogy of the Lowells of America from 1639 to 1899, Rutland VT: The Tuttle Company. ISBN 9780788415678.
2. ^ Gelfand, Mark. (1998) Trustee for a City: Ralph Lowell of Boston, Boston: Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1555533698.
3. ^ (1997, p 33) Westwood One Hundred, Boston:Suburban World Newspapers.

External links

• Ralph Lowell Reminiscences, 1964