User:Daysleeper47/Charles J. Lowry

Charles J. Lowry (December 10, 1924–February 4, 2007) was a soldier, federal employee and philantropist from Youngstown, Ohio. Lowry is best known as the plaintiff in Charles J. Lowry, Sr. v. Physicians Dialysis, initiating a class action lawsuit against the dialysis practice.

Lowry was a life-long resident of Youngstown, Ohio, father of eleven children, grandfather of eighteen and great-grandather to two. He was born November 10, 1924, the only child of Charles E. and Margaret M. Lowry, attended McKinley Elementary School, and graduated from Ursuline High School in 1942.

During World War II, Lowry was drafted in 1944. He was eventually assigned to Company D, 28th Infantry Regiment, 8th Infantry Division. During fighting around Brest, France, Lowry was wounded while serving as part of a machine gun crew. Transported to England and then Billings General Hospital at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, Lowry spent over a year recovering from sharpnel wounds to his legs.

Returning to Youngstown, he married Jean Grocutt at Saint Columba in 1948. Jean passed away in February 1987. He was well known in Yougstown for owning Lowry's Custard Stand, first on Belmont Avenue and then for a long time on Logan Avenue. He retired from the United States Post Office and in his retirement, gave his time to the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, for whom he opened and operated their first soup kitchen on Front Street from 1981 until 1987. He remained active in the St. Edward's St. Vincent DePaul Society until recently. He also was known for organizing bus trips to Saint Anne de Beaupre Shrine in Quebec, Canada and University of Notre Dame football games. In 2000, he was inducted into the Ursuline High School Athletic Hall of Fame, the first tennis player to be inducted.