Walter M. Lowrey

Who was Walter M. Lowrey?

Walter M. Lowrey was an historian affiliated with Centenary College, a Methodist-institution in Shreveport, Louisiana, who was also a founding member of the Louisiana Historical Association.

Lowrey was born to John William Lowrey, Sr., and Loretta Lowrey in Mansfield, the seat of DeSoto Parish south of Shreveport. He had three brothers and two sisters. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. During World War II, he served in the United States Army in the European theater of operations. He subsequently obtained a Master of Arts from LSU and a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

He was professor of history and the dean of arts and sciences at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux in Lafourche Parish in south Louisiana. In 1963, he joined the Centenary faculty; he was subsequently named Centenary's "Outstanding Professor of 1966."

In 1948, Lowrey wrote the article "The Political Career of James Madison Wells," a former Louisiana governor in the then entitled Louisiana Historical Quarterly. He penned the article on the Red River in the publication The Rivers and Bayous of Louisiana. Through his role as chairman of the United Methodist editorial committee in the late 1970s, Lowrey spearheaded the project A History of Louisiana Methodism. The project includes the history of the church's extensive network of circuit riders.