The Littleton man who died during the Bolder Boulder was a sailor and a thinker, friends and family said Tuesday.
Ross “Jack” J. Lowe, 65, was walking in Monday’s 10-kilometer race when he stumbled and fell at about the 5-kilometer mark near the intersection of Balsam Avenue and 19th Street.
“He was the one who got me into sailing and skiing,” said Lowe’s daughter, Carey Lowe-Curry, 36.
And it’s those times she said she won’t forget.
“Those are my best memories,” she said. “It was just him and me. That was our thing.”
Lowe-Curry was by her father during Monday’s race.
Lowe had quadruple-bypass heart surgery in 2004 that left a large scar across his chest. But Lowe-Curry said her father was in excellent shape and that his death came as a shock.
Race director and founder Cliff Bosley said it was the first death in the event’s 29 years.
Lowe walked the Bolder Boulder in 2004 – just months after his surgery – with the blessing of his doctor, his daughter said. And just last year, he walked a 15-minute mile during the race, she said.
It may take several weeks to determine the cause of death as more tests are done, the Boulder County Coroner’s Office said Tuesday.
After Lowe collapsed, the effort to revive him was swift, race officials and his daughter said. He died after being rushed to Boulder Community Hospital, coroner’s officials said.
The man remembered for his love of sailing bought a 22-foot Catalina Capri sailboat after he retired a few years ago from a decades-long career of engineering work for the U.S. Forest Service.
“He got to tromp around the mountains, and he got paid for it,” Lowe-Curry said of the job her father loved.
Lakewood resident Dave Wolf worked with the man he called a “serious sailor.”
“He was a good crisis sailor,” he said. “When the wind picked up and things got hairy, he did a good job of keeping things under control.”
Lowe loved talking and thinking so much, Wolf said, that he slapped a picture of a bearded Greek philosopher on the flier inviting people to his colleague’s retirement party.
“I think everyone appreciated the appropriateness of it,” Wolf said.
Lowe also is survived by his wife of 19 years, Ellen, and a son, Michael.
In accordance with Lowe’s wishes, his ashes will be scattered at sea, Lowe-Curry said.
Staff writer Vimal Patel can be reached at 303-954-1638 or vpatel@denverpost.com.
