Charles “Skip” Lowe, professor of psychology and interim dean of the UConn Graduate School, died on June 20 at his home in Mansfield Center in the company of his family, after a courageous battle with cancer. He was 69 years old.

A member of the UConn faculty for more than 40 years, Lowe was department head of psychology for 13 years, until 2011. He served briefly as the interim vice provost for graduate education and dean of the Graduate School.

During his time at UConn, Lowe built his department into a national leader in the study of psychology. Between 1998 and 2012, 37 tenure track faculty and 11 research/clinical faculty were hired into the psychology department. The annual funding for graduate students tripled. Federally funded research grants awarded to psychology increased dramatically, resulting in UConn’s psychology department being ranked in the top five among 212 psychology departments nationally, and its social psychology division is considered among the best.

“Skip was department head for 13 years, which is a remarkable achievement and speaks to how well everyone thought of him,” says current psychology department head James Green. “He was an award-winning teacher and a great leader. We’re all going to really miss him.”

Lowe helped to develop opportunities for graduate students to expand their research productivity. He increased annual funding for graduate students in the psychology department and made travel funds available so they could present research papers at national conferences. With that incentive, graduate students were able to publish more papers and earn more federal grant money, which improved the department’s ability to recruit nationally.

His contributions were not limited to his department, as he served in numerous roles for the American Association of University Professors, the University Senate, and many committees as an advocate for academic excellence, in particular in graduate education.

“Skip had a keen mind, wisdom brought by experience, a kind and generous heart, and a wonderful sense of humor,” says Jeremy Teitelbaum, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “Through his many contributions over such an extended career, he played a significant role in building the University of Connecticut into the strong institution we see today.”

Renovations to the Weston A. Bousfield Psychology Building, set to be completed in 2014, will include an atrium named for Lowe. Trustee Francis Archambault Jr., who presented the proposal to the Board, has said that he hopes that popular acclaim will cause the bright, sun-filled atrium to be called “The Skip.”

Green notes that the atrium tribute is befitting: Lowe envisioned a place where students could gather and talk about psychology since, as Green says, Lowe himself loved nothing more than to sit and talk about psychology.

Lowe attended Gloucester High School in Massachusetts, graduating in 1960 with high honors, and received his undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College in 1964. He attended the University of New Hampshire for a master’s degree in clinical psychology and the Carnegie Institute of Technology for a master’s in organizational psychology. He earned a Ph.D. in social psychology from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1970, and joined the UConn faculty the same year.

Lowe was strongly committed to teaching, advising, and mentoring students, and these commitments defined his 42 year career at UConn. In 1973, he was cited in Baron’s College Profile Series as one of three outstanding professors at UConn, and in 1979, he received the UConn Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching. He advanced rapidly through the academic ranks, was promoted to associate professor in 1975, awarded tenure in 1977, and promoted to full professor in 1979.

In 1980, he started a consumer research consulting company. For the next 12 years, he provided marketing advice regarding new product development, positioning, and advertising effectiveness to national and international consumer goods companies including: Anheuser Busch, General Electric, Kelly Services, Miles Laboratories, Polaroid, and Proctor and Gamble. He conducted more than 100 focus groups and qualitative interviews, while training his graduate students in qualitative research techniques. Nearly two dozen of his graduate students went on to successful careers in consumer marketing research.

Lowe was an avid genealogist. In 1991, he published a complete Lowe history, tracing 14 generations of the direct descendants of Thomas Low into the 20th century. He was proud that he was able to use his Lowe genealogical database to establish a “Lowe connection” to every faculty member in the psychology department, making them all his “family.”

He was a member of the Storrs Congregational Church, the Eastern Star Lodge No. 44, A.F. & A.M, and the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and coached both youth soccer and baseball for several years.

Lowe is survived by his wife of 42 years Janet; his sons Jonathan Charles Lowe and Christopher Stephen Lowe and their families; and a sister-in-law Linda (Thomas) and her sons Nathaniel and Jeremy Lowe.

A memorial service will be held at the Storrs Congregational Church, on Saturday, July 14 at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the University of Connecticut Foundation, 2390 Alumni Drive, Storrs, CT 06269, or online at www.foundation.uconn.edu, to fund the establishment of The Skip Lowe Graduate Scholarship in Psychology.

For an online memorial guestbook, please visit www.potterfuneralhome.com Also, a Facebook page has been created where friends and family can post recollections: http://www.facebook.com/SkipLoweUConn

For an article about Lowe’s love of baseball and his recent appointment as dean of the UConn Graduate School, click here.