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Thea Snyder Lowry ’53

Thea Snyder Lowry ’53, January 22, 2002, after being struck by a car in Novato, California, while helping to clear the road of a lawn mower that had fallen from a pickup truck. She was a writer, publisher, airplane pilot, artist, and marriage counselor, and in the ’50s was part of the Beat Generation with her brother, Gary Snyder ’51, Jack Kerouac, and others. She attended Reed in her freshman year, and in 1971 she earned a BA from New Mexico Highlands University. In 1973, she earned a master’s in psychology from Goddard College. She was a marriage counselor and graduate level instructor in the counseling department of San Francisco State University in the ’70s and ’80s, and she was codirector of the University’s Center for Counseling Skills. In 1972, she and her then husband served on the staff of the Masters and Johnson Clinic in St. Louis as part of the research team investigating sexual dynamics and relationships. After retiring from counseling, she wrote and published aviation manuals and started her own publishing firm, Manifold Press. She was the author of three books: Montgomery Remembered, Petaluma’s Poultry Pioneers, and Empty Shells: The Story of Petaluma, America’s Chicken City, working from dozens of oral histories she gathered over years of research. The books gained both popular and critical praise from genealogists, historians, and local poultry farmers. She is survived by her brother and a son.

Appeared in Reed magazine: May 2002

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