Lowell Adams

Obituary

Lowell Adams peacefully took his last breath on April 3, 2025. He was almost 86 years old. He and his older sister and younger brother grew up in small towns in Oklahoma and Arkansas, before eventually moving to Stillwater, Oklahoma, where his mother hoped her children would someday attend university (they all did). Lowell’s childhood was one of exploration and creativity: looking for snapping turtles and tarantulas, building treehouses for stargazing, smelling and feeling the air change as a storm rumbled towards the farm, tasting the tartness of apples picked fresh off the orchard trees, reading World Book Encyclopedias, and learning how machinery worked by taking things apart and putting them back together. When he was 15 years old, he won a national Boys’ Life competition for logging the most shortwave stations on his homemade receiver. He won a state-of-the-art shortwave set, the Hallicrafters SX-88, which remained a beloved possession throughout his life. He loved learning, whether in school, the library, or in his first jobs with excellent mentors at Crisp’s Radio and Television and Fenton Office Supply. While he began Oklahoma State University majoring in Electrical Engineering, he switched to Microbiology to avoid an almost certain career in management. After his master’s, he took a job as a Microbiology professor at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, thinking he would spend a few years there.

He became friends with Marilyn in high school but didn’t start seriously dating until university. When he moved to Ogden, Utah, and she to Denver, Colorado, as a remedial reading teacher, they maintained a long-distance courtship with many drives back and forth to see each other. They were married in 1965 on the Oklahoma State University campus with a reception in the backyard of Marilyn’s childhood home. They rented an apartment in downtown Ogden and scrimped and saved for the next stages of life, teaching their students and exploring Utah in their time off, falling in love with its natural beauty. For a two-year period supported by the National Science Foundation and a sabbatical, they returned to Stillwater for Lowell to get his Ph.D. in Microbiology. After almost a decade, they had saved enough to buy a vacant lot with a view in Ogden. They designed and built the house they would love and live in for almost 50 years. Amy was born in the middle of construction. April followed a couple of years later. Lowell and Marilyn were amazing parents and taught by showing their love of nature, learning, art, music, reading, storytelling, curiosity, and family. When Amy married Dave, Lowell and Marilyn lovingly welcomed him into the family.

Lowell retired from Weber State University in 1998. He loved teaching students. He wrote and distributed his own textbook for the price of photocopying, so it was affordable to everyone, and started every lecture with cartoons from The Far Side. In retirement, he wrote books of family history for three sides of the family, collecting photographs, family stories, poetry, and weaving historical research into each book. They will be cherished for generations. He also wrote down the Mug Stories he told his daughters when they were little about the adventures of a monkey named Mug. Classical music was extremely important to Lowell throughout life. He taught himself to play the piano by ear and played every day. He loved to listen to music in his easy chair in the living room and attend concerts at the university. He was always curious about the world and loved to explore it through road trips, camping, and educational programs on PBS. He was very proud of repairing everything himself and did not like to throw anything away if it could possibly have a future use.

In 2023, Lowell and Marilyn said goodbye to their beloved Ogden house and moved to the Seattle area to be closer to Amy and Dave. Lowell deeply appreciated the care and new friends made at Aljoya Mercer Island and Silverado Bellevue. We hope that his best friend and wife, Marilyn; daughter Amy and son-in-law Dave; daughter April; brother Norman (and Jean); sister Brenda (Iris); nephews and nieces Howard, Bryan, Susan, and Shannon; grandnieces and grandnephews Connor, Natasha, Savannah, Sarah, Rebecca, Stephen, Wesley (and first great-grandnephew Juniper), Tate, Cole, and Anna; and many, many cousins, in-laws, friends, former students, caregivers, and future readers will always smile when remembering Lowell and the legacy he leaves for generations.

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