COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – S.C. Governor Henry McMaster has granted a gifted and influential Winthrop University organ professor the state’s highest civilian honor, the Order of the Palmetto.
Supporters rallied this summer to ask the governor to give David Lowry, emeritus professor of music, this coveted recognition. Upon approval, it was presented to Lowry on Aug. 3 with a small group of former students and friends in attendance.
Leading the effort were former students Lenora Morrow Jeffcoat ’01, who was the last organ performance major taught by Lowry at Winthrop, and Jimmy Herlong, who is the son of the late Ann Herlong of Rock Hill and was a gifted pianist. Other letters of support came from Father James Lyon, Lowry’s rector at Good Shepherd Episcopal, U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson and S.C. Rep. Micah Caskey, among others.
Lowry is a notable organist, harpsichordist, music director and retired professor of music at Winthrop, where he taught from 1965 to 2012. Overall, he had a 55-year career as a musician in South Carolina, where he trained multiple generations of organists and singers, many of whom have gone on to serve churches and choirs in South Carolina and across the Southeast.
Winthrop Music Professor Matthew Manwarren called Lowry’s contributions significant and very deserving of the Order of the Palmetto. “In addition to his role as a music professor at Winthrop, he has contributed to the cultural life of the Rock Hill community and beyond as a co-founder of the York County Choral Society, a cherished organization that has meant so much to people in Rock Hill,” Manwarren said.
As a parish musician, Lowry provided to the musical life of many congregations throughout his career, most notably The Church of Our Savior in Rock Hill and The Church of the Good Shepherd in Columbia.
He also held leadership roles in organizations such as Anglican Association of Musicians, the Royal School of Church Music and the American Guild of Organists.
At Winthrop, Lowry and some of his alumni and community members banded together to push for the restoration of the D.B. Johnson Memorial Organ in Byrnes Auditorium in 2010. The historic Aeolian-Skinner Op. 1257 pipe organ has long been regarded as the crown jewel of Winthrop and one of the finest organs in the country, dating back to 1955. “His commitment to this project leaves a legacy to this university, and the local and state community for many generations to come,” Manwarren said.
Jeffcoat, along with many other students, is grateful to be trained by Lowry. “Long after he ceased to be my teacher, he was and continues to be my champion,” she said. “At every stage of my career, as well as every other student he taught, he made himself available for advice, coaching, encouragement, and when needed, a word of admonishment,” she said, recalling he ended every conversation or e-mail with his familiar “Go PRACTICE.”
About David Lowry
In the award nomination, Jeffcoat wrote how Lowry came to South Carolina from New York specifically because he loved the organ at Winthrop and wanted, in his words, “to be a part of taking care of that great instrument.”
As a young man, he maximized every musical opportunity, including working for a pipe organ company as a high schooler in North Carolina. He headed to Baldwin Wallace College in Ohio for his bachelor’s degree and then to New York City to Union Seminary for his master’s degree in sacred music. A choir member from a church he played for in Englewood, New Jersey, retired and moved to Rock Hill, alerting him of the Winthrop organ.
Over the years, Lowry also earned a Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) from the University of North Texas and completed studies in New College – Oxford in the United Kingdom, as well as in Haarlem, the Netherlands.
To learn more about Lowry, listen to this interview that Jeffcoat and Ryan Holcombe conducted with Lowry where he reflects on his storied career as an organist and college professor.
Those who want to help preserve Lowry’s legacy can donate to a recently established giving opportunity, the Dr. David Lowry Endowment Fund for Organ Education, set up by Murray and Hazel '69 Somerville. It will provide support for the ongoing education and advancement of organists at all stages of their musical journey. Donate here.
For more information, contact Judy Longshaw, news and media services manager, at longshawj@winthrop.edu.
