By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

Let me tell you why you would have enjoyed knowing Fred P. Lowrey. There is a secret about him that has never been told before in public.

He went to Punahou in the 1920s. A prominent feature of the campus was the copper dome of Pauahi Hall, built as an astronomical observatory. In time the faculty learned that you can't study stars in the rain. And it rains most of the time in Manoa. So the dome remained locked.

Lowrey and four of his friends decided that the dome should be painted buff and blue, Punahou colors, instead of copper.

This plan did not have official approval, and the boys didn't have a key to the observatory. In order to get their hands on a key, they dreamed up an experiment for their science class, measuring the distance between the top of Rocky Hill and the observatory by astronomical methods.

On the strength of this project, their science teacher handed over a key. Then Lowrey cockroached some paint off the shelf at Lewers & Cooke, the distinguished lumber yard of which his father was president.

The students' plan worked perfectly. Unmolested, they painted the dome buff and blue in sworn secrecy, cleaned up and stole away into the night without leaving a clue.

However, one of the boys forgot to clean the blue paint from under his fingernails before taking a test the next day. An eagle-eyed teacher spotted the evidence. The guilty student manfully refused to betray his comrades. Until this moment, nobody but his family knew that Fred P. Lowrey was involved.

Punahou lore has it that this antic started the paintbrush rivalry between Roosevelt High School and Punahou. Before the big football game every year, students sneaked onto the opposing campus to paint something with their own school colors. The tradition lasted for decades.

The reason I'm telling you this is that Fred P. Lowrey died at age 90 last month and nobody bothered to write a proper obituary. It's a shame when a person outlives the memory of him, especially when there is so much to remember.

Lowrey was born into a kama'aina family in 1911. He was from a bygone era. The first Fred Lowrey, his grandfather, went to work at Lewers & Cooke as a bookkeeper and became president. He sold lumber that came to Honolulu in majestic company schooners. His grandson made a voyage as deck boy aboard one of them.

The Lowrey mansion on Alexander Street was a showplace with a fountain in the living room. "I never fell in," said Fred P. "But I remember swimming in it." Bedrooms upstairs opened onto balconies that overlooked the pool and fountain.

Fred P. himself became president of Lewers & Cooke, a major supplier for thousands of homes built in Our Honolulu, until it went the way of many kama'aina firms. It merged with a Mainland company.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-0873.