Photo by Paige Wickum

Toni and Dick Lowden: On Lives Well Lived

December 2015

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4 December 2015

When you mention Toni and Dick Lowden to long-time residents of nevada, there doesn’t seem to be any part of evolving Reno that hasn’t, at some stage, been touched by their influence. Both (coincidentally) hail originally from Washington State – Toni from Seattle and Dick from Yakima. Their lives, even before they met, were filled with adventure, opportunity and occasional risk taking – a pattern that has continued.

Dick was born in yakima on July 1, 1925 - the youngest of four children, all very close in age. After first grade his family moved to Walla Walla. five years after World War Two broke out, and following in the footsteps of his brothers - Bob who had joined the military as a medical doctor, and John who was military glider pilot - he joined the united States army air Corps. There Dick tested and was accepted for aviation Cadet Pilot Training. after completing his training in San antonio, TX, he went on to attend the then Rockhurst College (now Rockhurst university), followed by flight School. Two years later he graduated as a second lieutenant pilot and was sent on to a Texas airfield where he taught flying to foreign nationals. although in those days many cadets did not survive their primary stage of flying, Dick proudly boasts that he never lost a student! When the war ended and he was discharged, he hitchhiked back to Walla Walla to continue life as a civilian – enrolling at Whitman College and finally graduating in 1949.

Toni and Dick Lowden: By Miranda Roberts

a brief career as a Social Psychologist at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla followed, but Dick soon realized that it was not the career for him. in January 1950 he drove to San francisco and joined Traveler’s insurance Company as an adjuster. his brother John, who had just completed his Master’s degree at arizona State university, and his sister Pat, who had been working as a fashion model in new york, both moved to San francisco around the same time and the siblings decided to once again live under the same roof!

industry training followed, including a brief period in new york with Royal Globe Insurance Company as a field representative. To his amusement, in those days his title was “special agent”. for the most part, his early career was spent in California working with several of the largest insurance companies. Life in the Bay area was fast and fun and he, and his friend harry Schiefele, lived it to the fullest - enjoying many years of racing in the local waters on their 25ft boat aptly named “The fun”. The two have remained friends ever since!

eventually, missing small town life and wanting to live closer to a ski area, Dick moved to Reno, nevada. Shortly after arriving there, visiting friends set him up on a date with someone he had met just once, years before and who was spending the summer at her aunt’s house at Tahoe…

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On Lives Well Lived

Photos by Paige Wickum

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Toni’s Seattle childhood imbued the creativity for which the city is known and set the cornerstone for her lifelong appreciation for the arts. Living only four blocks from the original Seattle art Museum, her family enjoyed symphony concerts on the lawn, artist’s demonstrations and classes at the museum, and opera performances from an early age. after studying classical piano for eight years she was offered a music scholarship which she turned down in keeping with the thinking at the time, for a more “practical” career in nursing! With degrees from gonzaga university and the Sacred heart School of nursing, she embarked upon her chosen career, only to “interrupt” it a few years later to travel the world as an American Airlines flight attendant.

This career switch provided Toni with the perfect opportunity to expand her passion for the arts by visiting many of the museums, galleries, and musical events around the world that coincided with her itineraries. She sums up this time perfectly by commenting how this access to so many different art forms in so many different places gave her “an awareness of how much the arts technicolor our world”.

Dick and Toni’s relationship survived the “long distance” between San francisco and Reno, and they eventually married in 1964, setting up home in a small house on John freemont Street. arts loving Toni admits that she was somewhat reluctant to move to a town which at that stage was without a theater, opera or symphony orchestra, in a state with a population less than that of San francisco! Plans to return regularly to San francisco to enjoy the culture that was so vital to her proved impractical, and so began her life-long commitment to local community involvement. “Looking back now 50 years later, if i had stayed in San francisco i never would have been involved in my community other than walking up to the ticket window. if you want those things in your community you have to get involved or they don’t happen. So every time a notice appeared in the paper to volunteer for a cultural project, i showed up and got involved. now you couldn’t talk me out of living anywhere else.”

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On Lives Well Lived

Dick admits that his move to Reno was well timed and he rode the coattails of this developing town with the insurance company that he co-founded with George Fairfield. At the same time, his family was expanding too, with their four children – elizabeth, Jeff, Peter and Josh, born in six years. After a year of living in Reno they moved into one of the first 50 homes in the newly developed and still very rurally located, incline village. although as avid skiers they enjoyed the proximity to the slopes, life in the early days at incline was increasingly impractical during winter for a young family. The often unplowed Mt Rose meant that Dick regularly had to commute from Reno via Carson City, and power failures were a habitual winter occurrence. none the less, they have good memories of those early days at incline, when it truly was still a village and everyone knew one another. The family attended Mass in the room above the gaming floor at the Crystal Bay Club (where it was not uncommon for people to drop gaming chips into the collection basket!) and shed tears as pine forest was cleared to create the shopping center. Tahoe Boulevard was not paved and The King’s Castle had a life sized Lady godiva riding a horse on the corner where the hyatt now stands!

in 1966 after six feet of snow cut power and electric, the Lowdens decided to head back to the comforts of Reno. With snow hampering travel over the pass, they stayed overnight with friends and by chance, while there, they learned of an idyllically located house in Reno that was for sale. it has been the family home ever since! although no longer as rurally situated as it was in those days, the children have wonderful memories of years filled with horse riding and tennis - right from their doorstep.

Dick’s talent for commercial investment stems from the opportunities presented to him through the business networking that the insurance industry provides. and so his company continued to expand - along with his family - and they were able to enjoy trips together as far afield as europe, China, australia, new zealand and Japan. Many summers were

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spent on the 50 foot twin diesel yacht berthed near Seattle that they shared with friends. for several years, they would head out on extended fishing trips to Alaskan waters, with like-minded friends, always returning with at least 100 pounds of flayed salmon each! Other family vacations were enjoyed at the home in zephyr Cove with its 1000 feet of shoreline that they built with their friend, former governor Bob List, and which they still own. While Dick built his business, and with her growing children becoming more independent, Toni began to find more time to devote to her beloved arts – in the community as well as on a more personal level.

her love of music lead to her early support of the nevada Opera, helping it to grow from a fledgling organization at the Reno Little Theater, into its current home at The Pioneer. Where once they had bussed in audiences from as far afield as Carson City and Lake Tahoe to swell the ranks, they were now represented by Toni at Opera guilds international, impressing even the likes of the new york City and Boston guilds. it became apparent that as the population of Reno grew, the people moving here from more cosmopolitan cities brought their cultural tastes with them, starting the melting pot of creative diversity that the city knows today. Toni’s passion and tireless fundraising resulted in her appointment to the nevada arts Council for a three-year term, something she describes as a “learning experience, and a lesson in how much nevada offers to its artists and its audiences”.

in the footsteps of Toni’s Seattle art Museum experiences as a child, the Lowden children enjoyed the classes at The nevada Museum of art (nMa), while Toni signed up for weaving classes. This ultimately led to her achieving her Master’s Degree in fine art (Mfa) from Berkeley, some years later. When her Mfa show was brought to the nMa Toni brought her passion for the arts to the development of this institution too. She started as a curatorial assistant, then became a docent, then membership chair, and finally was persuaded to join the Board of Directors. She recalls some of the incredible exhibits that have graced the galleries of this landmark building on Liberty Street over the years – including the Chihuly glass exhibition opening, which the artist himself attended in his tuxedo and paint spattered shoes! in 2001 Toni was acknowledged by her peers, the Nevada Arts Council and the Office of the governor when she was nominated for The governor’s award for excellence in arts in recognition of her “outstanding and enduring contributions to nevada through artistic achievement and service to the arts”.

after years of volunteering and innovation at the nMa, Toni decided to focus more on creating her own work – the highlight of which was creating a five foot tapestry and several paintings in response to Leo villarreal’s L.e.d. exhibit. These pieces now have their permanent home in the new Health Sciences Building at UNR. It seems a fitting legacy that this building houses the Medical and nursing Schools…

By this time Dick had retired from business life, but was still as busy as ever behind the scenes of many local ventures. as the children

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had moved on, he exchanged his yacht for a forty foot diesel motorhome – with all the bells and whistles! Despite their continuing art- and business- community involvement, the pair still found time to put considerable miles on the clock, traveling the back roads to the east Coast on several occasions, along the Mississippi river from Minnesota to new Orleans and even wintering in arizona for several years. now they prefer to enjoy their days quietly at their home in Reno, surrounded by their children and grandchildren.

in recent years they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a big party at Lake Tahoe. Their lives had come full circle and they were back where they had enjoyed that first date! They both agree that nevada has been good to them – it could also be said that they have been good for nevada.