Walter E. Lowe ’69

“How, Then, Shall I Live?”: Why One Alumnus Has Given Back for More Than 50 Years and Will for Many More

Walter E. Lowe ’69 first set foot on the Mount Hermon campus in the fall of 1967. From that moment he knew he was no longer in Jim Crow Virginia, where he grew up. Walter recalls this pivotal moment when the world first opened up to him, when he realized that, for the first time, he could “be who I was, think independently, engage with whomever I wanted, and not worry about being judged.”

Walter remains a committed member of NMH’s wider community. An active alumnus and donor since his graduation day, Walter has attended all but one of his class reunions.

What has kept him so deeply engaged with the institution? Walter shared his appreciation for Northfield Mount Hermon’s core mission to educate the head, heart, and hands of students, inspiring them to change the world and equipping them with the tools to do so.

This theme is woven into the curriculum at NMH, especially in its humanities class—where first-year students have been asked the same four questions for the past two decades:

• Who am I?
• What is my place?
• What does it mean to be human?
• How, then, shall I live?

“I love those questions,” Walter says. “They are true to the nature of what NMH is about.” The questions, coupled with Northfield Mount Hermon’s mission, resonate strongly with Walter today and explain his motivation for giving back. “Giving is how you act on the fact that you understand education for the head, heart, and hand,” he says.

Walter’s 53 years of giving to NMH began with support for the NMH Fund. His consistent giving has been recognized with his inclusion in NMH’s Loyalty Circle, as a member of both the Moody Society and the Maroon and Blue Society. A class volunteer, Walter joined the Lamplighter Society by including NMH in his estate planning in the days leading up to his 50th class reunion.

“The fact that NMH has evolved in terms of technology, the campus has expanded with new buildings, and teaching methodologies have evolved ... all of that is expected,” he says. “But at the core are those three words: ‘head, heart, and hand.’ They were true in 1879, they are true now, and they will be true going forward.”