RONALD E. LOWELL LIFE HISTORY
(16 December 1953
until 1958)
I was born
in a little Japanese town of Sendai, Japan.
I was the first son of John Clark and Martha Maxine (Neeld) Lowell. My siblings are Stephanie (seven years my
senior), Lauretta (Lauri, two years my senior), and my brother Calvin (Cal,
seven years my junior).
My father
was a captain in the U.S. Army who was trained in military intelligence and
Japanese linguistics and was an interpreter between the U.S. military officials
and Japanese officials in official military matters. My father was the son of a railroad inspector
and was raised in Webster City, Iowa.
Dad was a strong and strikingly handsome man, over six feet four inches
tall. He was quick-witted and typically
jovial with close friends, but always affable and able to warm up any social
setting he was found in. It would be
typical to find Dad laughing loudly, with his favorite pipe in hand.
My mother
was a farm girl, raised in Neveda, Iowa.
Although short in stature, she was unusually the center of any group of
people that surrounded her. She was
naturally and unusually poised and radiantly beautiful, with her naturally
striking red hair.
I remember
my early pre-kindergarten years fondly in Japan. My first years (between 1953 up to 1957) were
the years before we had been introduced to the restored gospel of Jesus
Christ. That was during our first tour
in Japan before moving to Fort Haleberd, MD.
Some memories included living in an authentically Japanese home in
Sendai. I remember Dad knocking his head
on a wooden bulwark that was too low for his head while going up the stairs in
our home. I also remember playing on and
around a large exposed diesel engine that was out in a field in the Sendai
countryside. Funny the things that come
to mind in a young boy’s life…
As
mentioned, the Army ordered Dad to Ft. Haleberd in 1957. We traveled to and across the Pacific in
large ocean liners back then. Dad and
Mom told me that out of all in the family (and many on board) I was the only
one that never got sea-sick!
When we got
to Maryland, we lived in Army housing.
My memories there included watching TV. for the first time (of course,
in black and white) to shows like Zorro, Roy Rogers, the Lone Ranger, and Sky
Chief. I even had an official Zorro
wrist watch that had a red warning light that would illuminate if I pressed a
secret button. Dad was in charge of the
Army volleyball team on post. I used to
go with him to his practices on post. I
remember pulling down the big smooth metal lever on the local Coca Cola machine
by the restrooms there to enjoy a five-cent cold glass bottle of Coke.
At this
time, our family was somewhat close together, but Dad’s frequent drinking and
carousing with his friends kept Mom worried and my siblings and I wondering
about figuring out Dad’s changing emotions towards life and us. I wish to insert here some important words
from Mom’s heart that she wrote for me later on in my life. These words describe how the events in our
family’s life at this time led to our introduction to the true and restored
gospel of Jesus Christ.
“We were baptized in 1957.
Dad was the
kind of a man who was so ‘sure’ of himself and self-sufficient. Always thought nothing could wear him
down. He was always active in sports…also
drank quite a bit socially. We were
stationed in Baltimore, Maryland and he suddenly became very sick. He became pale and so weak that he could
hardly walk across the room at times. So
the Army sent him to Walter Reed hospital for tests. The doctors couldn’t find any specific thing
wrong, so even had him go to a psychiatrist.
Dad, a captain then, had been working with a Major Aaron Amacher who he
liked and admired very much as a man.
Afterwards, Dad told me that Aaron Amacher seemed to have something in
his life and in his family that he didn’t have.
He seemed to realize that his life was useless and empty and there needs
to be a change made. Dad said he began
to read the Gideon bible in the hospital and said one night he got down beside
his bed and knelt and prayed to the Lord to give him back his health. If He would, Dad vowed to dedicate his life
and his family to serving Him in some way.
So then he began to search out read anything everything on all religions
so that he would know what to do. Aaron
Amacher was a Mormon, so Dad read a little about the Mormon church. He began to get a little better and they
released him from the hospital. The
Amachers took us to their Sunday school and sacrament service. Dad said that he wanted to join the Mormon
church! He didn’t have a testimony of
Joseph Smith restoring the gospel (and neither did I…..I had never heard of the
Mormon church before) but he liked what the church had to offer for his family. So we paid our first month’s tithing and then
asked to be baptized! The bishop was
shocked! Aaron Amacher baptized us both
for I thought if this is happening to him I wanted to be a part of it. It wasn’t until afterward that we read the
Book of Mormon and were convinced of the truthfulness of the gospel that was
restored by Joseph Smith. Dad didn’t
have one bit of problem to stop smoking and drinking. Just never had the desire to do it from then
on, so I know it was the power of something or Someone stronger than
himself and it was a miracle in our lives.
It literally changed our lives, (Ron), from that time on. Dad was like a different person. It was like being married to a completely
different man. Then we made a 2nd
tour in Japan. Those people who saw him
there that knew him before said he even looked different! And so he did. His whole expression in his face was
different. Our four years there in the
Tokyo (LDS) branch were nothing but happy years filled with happy memories when
all you children were small.”
Dad was the kind of a man who was so ‘sure’ of himself and
self-sufficient. Always thought nothing
could wear him down. He was always
active in sports…also drank quite a bit socially. We were stationed in Baltimore, Maryland and
he suddenly became very sick. He became
pale and so weak that he could hardly walk across the room at times. So the Army sent him to Walter Reed hospital
for tests. The doctors couldn’t find any
specific thing wrong, so even had him go to a psychiatrist. Dad, a captain then, had been working with a
Major Aaron Amacher who he liked and admired very much as a man. Afterwards, Dad told me that Aaron Amacher
seemed to have something in his life and in his family that he didn’t
have. He seemed to realize that his life
was useless and empty and there needs to be a change made. Dad said he began to read the Gideon bible in
the hospital and said one night he got down beside his bed and knelt and prayed
to the Lord to give him back his health.
If He would, Dad vowed to dedicate his life and his family to serving
Him in some way. So then he began to search
out read anything everything on all religions so that he would know what to
do. Aaron Amacher was a Mormon, so Dad
read a little about the Mormon church.
He began to get a little better and they released him from the hospital. The Amachers took us to their Sunday school
and sacrament service. Dad said that he
wanted to join the Mormon church! He
didn’t have a testimony of Joseph Smith restoring the gospel (and neither did
I…..I had never heard of the Mormon church before) but he liked what the church
had to offer for his family. So we paid
our first month’s tithing and then asked to be baptized! The bishop was shocked! Aaron Amacher baptized us both for I thought
if this is happening to him I wanted to be a part of it. It wasn’t until afterward that we read the
Book of Mormon and were convinced of the truthfulness of the gospel that was
restored by Joseph Smith. Dad didn’t
have one bit of problem to stop smoking and drinking. Just never had the desire to do it from then
on, so I know it was the power of something or Someone stronger than
himself and it was a miracle in our lives.
It literally changed our lives, (Ron), from that time on. Dad was like a different person. It was like being married to a completely
different man. Then we made a 2nd
tour in Japan. Those people who saw him
there that knew him before said he even looked different! And so he did. His whole expression in his face was
different. Our four years there in the
Tokyo (LDS) branch were nothing but happy years filled with happy memories when
all you children were small.”
With the
unmatchable blessing of the Holy Ghost and the restored gospel of Jesus Christ
in my family’s life, our family went through an amazing transformation. I recall the precious day when our family
(all dressed in white) was sealed for time and eternity together in the Logan,
Utah temple. Present at that time were
my mother and father, with myself and my two sisters Stephanie and Lauri. My brother Cal wasn’t born yet.
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