Opened to students for the 2006-2007 school year, Jack Lowe Sr. Elementary School is part of an educational complex shared with another new school, Sam Tasby Middle School. Located at Vickery Meadow in northeast Dallas, the building has 222,000 square feet of space for the elementary and middle school programs, which share the auditorium, stage, kitchen, and central plant.
The schools have separate entrances, although both have a modern brick veneer accented by stucco and metal panels. The elementary school has its own educational rooms, including core classrooms, a science classroom, an art room, a music room, an instructional technology classroom, and a media center.
Biography of Jack Lowe Sr.
Jack Lowe Sr. was a community leader who helped draft the Dallas school desegregation plan adopted by the federal courts. A Dallas native, John Burford Lowe was born July 22, 1913. He was raised in the Oak Cliff area and attended neighborhood public schools. Even with a career marked by business and civic accomplishments and accolades, he will best be remembered for his work as the chief architect of the Dallas Independent School District's desegregation plan that was adopted by the U.S. Federal Court in 1976.
After receiving a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Rice University in Houston in 1934, Lowe went to work for the General Electric Company's Air Conditioning Development Division in the northeast. In 1942, he was commissioned into the U.S. Army Signal Corps, in which he served throughout World War II.
Returning to Dallas in 1946, Lowe founded Texas Distributors Inc. in the back of an auto parts store owned by his aunt, who also loaned him $5,000 to get the business off the ground. Today, the firm known as TD Industries has more than 1,300 "employee-partners" and generates annual revenues of $240 million. The company's servant-leadership culture, which is dedicated to helping employees succeed, was established by Jack Lowe Sr. and remains part of the company's vision and values. Fortune lists TD Industries as among the 100 Best Companies in America.
While building his company, Lowe became involved with the lives of others. Jack Lowe Jr. remembers his father as a man who "made his truly unique community contributions when there were cross-racial or cross-ethnic problems to be dealt with."
Lowe's work as chairman of the multi-racial Dallas Alliance Education Task Force, which worked to develop an acceptable school desegregation plan, proved contentious at times, but his consensus-building skills and his love for Dallas paid off. The plan was adopted almost word-for-word by the federal court.
For his work on the Dallas Alliance Education Task Force, Lowe was awarded one of Dallas' highest community service accolades, the Linz Award, in 1976. In his words, "Pulling this plan together was a dream, a miracle, with the odds against it at 100 to 1 or even 1,000 to 1. I put all I had into this school thing, but I am deeply conscious that it was only a tiny fraction of the whole. There is not a problem we couldn't solve if people would sit down and go at it together."
Lowe also helped strengthen the Greater Dallas Council of Churches, and he served on the Citizens Council. He was active on the boards of the Community Relations Commission, Salvation Army, American Red Cross, Urban League, YMCA, and Girl Scout Council. He also helped develop the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association, the Salesmanship Club of Dallas, and the Dallas Kiwanis Club.
Jack Lowe Sr. died in 1980 at the age of 67. Fellow Dallas Alliance Board member Walter Humann wrote about his colleague and friend that "Jack literally gave a good part of his life to help Dallas ISD. Most important, he wanted to help the children. He was one of the kindest and most compassionate individuals that I have ever met."
Biography of Jack Lowe Sr.