Longtime Bridgehampton resident William Finley Lowe died at home on May 30 from complications of hemophilia. He was 91.
Born in Pittsburgh in 1923 and raised in Bayside, Queens, he was the oldest son of Graham V. Lowe and Helen Finley Lowe. He attended Bayside High School, where he met his future bride, Anne Harrington. He graduated from Admiral Farragut Academy in June 1942 and entered the U.S. Coast Guard in December that same year. From 1942 to 1946 he patrolled the New York Harbor and surrounding waters during World War II aboard cutters, icebreakers and tugboats based on Pier 18. He married Anne Harrington in October 1946, and they started a family in 1950.
In 1956, the couple moved from Bayside to the Butter Lane home owned by his father in Bridgehampton, where Mr. Lowe had spent summers with his grandfather, Otto Lowe. He remodeled the home himself and converted the old horse barn into a fully functional machine shop where he designed and built custom index machinery to be sold worldwide by his E-Z MACHINE corporation. His business took him from Australia to Germany installing his machines, many of which are still running today.
From 1962 to 1978, the couple owned four different private planes, from an Aircoupe to a twin-engine Piper Aztec, and they often traveled from Florida to Montreal on vacation and business. Mr. Lowe maintained the airplanes himself and built his own hangar at East Hampton Airport.
Flying took a backseat to fishing and boating together, and in 1978 the couple joined the Sag Harbor Yacht Club, where their boat, “The Annie,” was docked. First aboard a 28-foot Bertram and then on a 34-foot Main Ship, they were a common sight on the right side of the main dock.
Mr. Lowe’s other hobbies included hunting, clamming, scalloping, model building and creating in the shop. Anything he or his wife needed could be built in that shop, survivors said.
Mr. Lowe is survived by a son, William “Butch” Lowe and wife Kathryn of Bridgehampton; a daughter, Wendy and husband Charles Butler of Wainscott; a granddaughter, Kate Lowe Berkoski and husband Craig of Noyac; two grandsons, Mark Harrington Butler of Wainscott and William Garrett Lowe Jr. of Bridgehampton; and a great-granddaughter, Evelyn Rose Berkoski. He was predeceased by his wife, Anne, in 2008; and a grandson, Charles Scott Butler in 2010.
Visitation will be Saturday, June 6, from 3 to 7 p.m. at his home at 110 Butter Lane in Bridgehampton. He will be cremated and interred, alongside his wife, in a private ceremony. Funeral arrangements were under the direction of the Brockett Funeral Home in Southampton.
Memorial donations may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105, or East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach, NY 11978.
on Jun 1, 2015