William E Lowery
92 years
William Edgar Lowery passed away peacefully in Moraga California on March 31, 2024, two and a half years after Sally, his adored wife of 67 years.
Bill is survived by his four sons, Bill (Laurie), Bob (Vicki), Michael (Mary) and John “J.P.” (Priscilla); daughter-in-law Elizabeth Lowery; 13 grandchildren, Gavin, Conor, and Brenna; Joe, Katie, Sarah, and Kristen; Brady, Colby and Molly; Liam, Aidan and Rowan; and two great-grandchildren, Josie and Luke. He is pre-deceased by his sister Marlene Wood, parents Harold and Winifred Lowery, and his wife Sally.
Bill was born November 17, 1931 in El Paso, Texas. The family moved to Modesto, California in 1938, where Bill spent his formative years, much of it working, skiing, and camping in the mountains around Yosemite. Bill graduated from Modesto High School in June 1949 and earned a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of the Pacific in Stockton. He married Sally Diefenderfer on October 3, 1954 in La Grange, California.
In 1960, Bill started his first business where he pioneered the design and manufacturing of insulated building panels. He never looked back, becoming a highly successful serial entrepreneur by developing new formulations and applications for urethane foam. In 1963, Bill moved the family from southern California to Orinda, where he and Sally settled for good. They raised their four boys amongst a group of wonderful friends who shared their love of the outdoors and their commitment to a life lived to the fullest.
When Bill wasn’t working on one of his businesses, he was invariably busy with a home project or an outdoor adventure with family and friends. Skiing was his first love, and weekends at Tahoe were a part of the family’s winter routine. In the summer, he would join Sally and the boys at their beach house in Monterey, where he would participate vigorously in beach football games and muster his reluctant crew to sail the Cal 20 whenever the small craft advisory flag was raised. Annually, he also led his family, along with assorted friends and relatives, on pack trips in the Sierras, also serving as the camp cook and storyteller.
In his later years, Bill was a loving grandfather who’s extended family would gather en masse each summer at the family’s mountain home in Graeagle to hike, swim and golf. He continued to ski with his sons and grandchildren well into his seventies, and his business legacy was passed to his sons, Bill and Michael, and then to his grandsons. Bill dreamed big and accomplished a great deal in his life, and like a true patriarch, he was driven by his love of family and the desire to give them every opportunity to achieve dreams of their own.