Charles Herbert Lowe, Jr.,
Noted Desert Ecologist, Herpetologist, and Professor,
1920-2002.
Dr. Charles H. Lowe, Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology, who arrived at the University of Arizona in 1950 and retired in 1995,
died Friday night, September 13, 2002, after a period of declining health.
Dr. Lowe was an intense and colorful character who for many years was the
leading naturalist and ecologist of the Southwest. In 1964 he published “The
Vertebrates of Arizona”, a landmark book that also included his detailed
descriptions of all of Arizona’s natural environments. For many years he taught
a very popular and well-regarded course on the natural history of the Southwest
at the University of Arizona. During the 1960’s, he and his students,
especially John Wright, Jay Cole, and Bob Bezy resolved the most difficult
problem in North American herpetology (the study of amphibians and reptiles) by
showing that many of our whiptail lizard species were in fact of hybrid origin,
and were all-female species, reproducing without males (in a clone-like
fashion). Although a herpetologist at heart, his ecological interests were
exceedingly broad. From 1969-1983, with National Park Service Naturalist Scotty
Steenbergh, he published a key series of books and papers on the natural
history, population decline, and physiology of the saguaro cactus in the Tucson
area and elsewhere in the Sonoran Desert, and in 1980 he co-authored (with
David E. Brown) the still-authoritative map of the Biotic Communities of the
Southwest. In 1986 he published “The Venomous Reptiles of Arizona” with Cecil
Schwalbe and Terry Johnson. His students have gone on to successful positions
as major museum curators from coast to coast, as professors, and as key
conservation professionals in Arizona.
Born in Los Angeles, California, on April 16, 1920, the young Charles quickly
developed a love of the desert, and especially of reptiles and amphibians.
Highly competitive, he went to UCLA with a basketball scholarship, where he
nonetheless pursued his desire to become a professional herpetologist. After
graduating from college, he served in World War II as a U.S. Navy Ensign, Lt.
(jg) in the Pacific, resuming study at UCLA in 1946. In 1950, with new Ph.D. in
hand, he immediately departed for Arizona and the uncharted ecological realms
of the Sonoran Desert region. During his graduate studies he also worked as an
ecological consultant at Ground Zero in White Sands with two of his great
lifetime collaborators, Kenneth Norris and Richard Zweifel. For most of his
life, Lowe had a superb mastery of the scientific literature, and he and
several students, including Wallace Heath, David Hinds, and Annette Halpern,
performed a fascinating series of laboratory experiments on the ecology and
physiology of diverse animals ranging from fish to lizards to roadrunners and
jackrabbits. For example, their determination that the desert pupfish can
tolerate temperatures up to 112 degrees Fahrenheit remains the known benchmark
for fish; they also demonstrated the pupfish’s remarkable ability to tolerate
low oxygen levels. Although he was strong in the library and laboratory, it was
his dedication to direct learning and exploration in the field that became his
trademark and an example successfully followed by many students.
Dr. Lowe flew with backcountry pilot Ike Russell to the unknown reaches of
Sonora and the islands in the Sea of Cortez, and explored even more widely on
the ground, inspiring generations of “desert rats”. He and his wife Arlene
chaperoned ecologists, movie stars, and journalists through the natural and
cultural history of the Sonoran Desert. He built one of the world’s largest and
most representative collections of Southwestern amphibian and reptile
specimens, discovered and described no less than 20 new species and subspecies,
and published over 136 scientific articles and books (at last count). He had a
widely-known ego to match, and in later years expressed many varied regrets for
having allowed it to roam all-too-freely. He suffered with the decline of the
desert, and, in the past two decades, struggled with declining health and a
house fire that destroyed invaluable materials and research in progress. In
these decades he also enjoyed a much-mellowed autumn with his children and
grandchildren, precious nurse Rosalie Peralta, his assistant George Bradley,
and his students, including work with Philip Rosen on ecological monitoring in
the National Parks system, and with Daniel Beck and Brent Martin on Gila
monsters and beaded lizards. While he could be aggressive and was not
particularly tolerant, his drive to learn and achieve brought him great success
and led to wide renown as a researcher. Matching this was his enjoyment of
teaching, as well as the many stories about him that made him much larger than
life. Yet larger still were his thoughtfulness, generosity, and his depth of
feeling for nature and for those working with him.
Dr. Lowe was husband of the late Arlene Patten Lowe, and is survived by his
loving son Charles A. (Cal) of Tucson, and daughter Catherine Anne and
grandchildren Griffen Kathleen (9) and Michael Ryan (12) of Los Angeles. A
small service for family and close friends will be held on September 29. A
larger public memorial will be held in October at a site and date to be determined.
Those desiring to be placed on the contact list for the memorial can contact
Phil Rosen or George Bradley (520-621-3187; pcrosen@u.arizona.edu), Cecil
Schwalbe (cecils@ag.arizona.edu, 520-571-9550 phone/fax), or family members.
Donations in his memory may be made to the Charles H. Lowe, Jr., Herpetology
Research Fund at the Tucson Herpetological Society, P.O. Box 709, Tucson, AZ
85702-0709, or to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.