Minneapolis
Central High School

Mary Lower

From 1959 Centralian

"Wind her up and away she goes." National Honor Society, Honor Roll, Centralian, Band, Triettes, German Club, Pep Club.

August 20, 2009

After graduation I attended Augsburg College carpooling every day with fellow CHS grad Hans Sandbo. Augsburg days included (amongst other things): a 6 week band trip to Alaska via bus on the Alcan Highway and boat down the inland coast, a memorable camping trip to the World’s Fair in Seattle(with CHS’ Joan J and 2 others,) graduating in Mathematics with every intention to teach, and meeting my husband Lannell. After graduation, I worked as a programmer for Honeywell. Lannell and I were married the summer after graduation and moved to Little Falls MN. We were in Little Falls for 11 years interrupted with 2 years in Tempe AZ for graduate school for Lannell. We then moved further north of the fold in the map of MN to Brainerd. Having as a goal to move south of the fold in the map of MN, 35 years later we are still living in Brainerd. Lannell worked as the child protection supervisor for Crow Wing County until he retired 9 years ago. Mary (wondering what she wanted to do when she grew up) has taught school at a Catholic girls’ school, St Cloud State, CLC in Brainerd, a school for high school dropouts and a few stints as a substitute teacher in Brainerd. A class in individual income tax resulted in working preparing taxes for a few years (like 30.) Presently I am a partner in a tax office in Nisswa. In as much as I really like my clients and the work, there is no heavy lifting, and my staff is wonderful; I have put off retirement for a while. In between these endeavors, I owned a small bookstore in Nisswa (a really good gig!!) was a partner in a toy store in Nisswa, worked a few gift shops in Nisswa/Brainerd, and sold tickets to the races at BIR. Lannell and I have 3 children who live in Duluth, Denver and San Francisco, and one grandson in Denver. Interests now include: travel, reading, a local arts organization, PFLAG, women’s issues and working with the local women’s center, and justice issues that are before my local and national church. The 50 years have been good. I was fortunate to get the grounding, influence and education that I received from the staff and teachers at CHS.

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