Aviation journalist Paul Lowe, AIN’s Washington, D.C.-based editor for more than two decades, is this year’s recipient of NBAA’s David W. Ewald Platinum Wing Award, which recognizes lifetime achievement and excellence in journalism. Wilson Leach, AIN co-founder and managing director, accepted the award on behalf of Lowe, who unfortunately was unable to attend the NBAA 2014 media breakfast on Tuesday.
The recipient of NBAA’s Gold Wing Award in 2007, Lowe has long been respected by the people and companies he writes about. Jack Olcott, former NBAA president, in a letter to Lowe, wrote, “Your article in the 1999 September AIN on the fractional ownership issue and NBAA’s position on factional ownership is the most comprehensive and objective to date. Congratulations on a good job of reporting.” And John Zugschwert, former executive director of the American Helicopter Society, wrote in 2001, “Excellent article on the Vertical Flight Training Technology Coalition. Appreciate it.”
Lowe is also appreciated by his editors, who invariably find his manuscripts factual, well researched, well written and in need of minimal editing. He’s considered to be a true journalist.
Early Introduction to Aviation
Paul Lowe was born in Lock Haven, Pa., in 1941, the eldest of three brothers, who were raised by their mother. One of their aunts worked for Piper Aircraft, which was by far the small town’s largest employer at the time. Just growing up in Lock Haven in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s was enough to interest one in flying, according to Gail Lowe, who is married to Paul’s brother Dennis and is also from there. She said that another aunt, an English teacher, helped and encouraged the young Lowe boys in language skills, all three of whom are good at writing.
After high school, Paul attended Penn State in University Park, majoring in journalism, “because he loved to write,” Gail explained. Call-Chronicle Newspapers (now The Morning Call) in Allentown, Pa., hired Lowe after he graduated in 1964, and he worked there as a journalist and editor for 20 years. He also learned to fly while living in Allentown, earning his private pilot certificate. Gail recalled the time Paul called her and Dennis to pick him up around midnight at the former Willow Grove Naval Air Station, near Horsham, Pa., after making an emergency landing in a single-engine piston airplane. The Military Police had detained him, because he was not authorized to land there.
Lowe began his aviation-writing career as a freelance journalist with AIN. After trying him out on several of AIN’s convention and airshow staffs, as well as giving him ad hoc assignments for AIN’s monthly, Aviation International News, Jim Holahan, the company’s other co-founder and now retired editor-in-chief, hired Lowe full time in April 1992. While Paul would have preferred to work at the AIN editorial office in Midland Park, N.J., Holahan had a different plan for him and sent him south to D.C. to be AIN’s sole Washington editor.
The new job brought Lowe in regular face-to-face contact with the aviation alphabets based in and around the area, mainly NBAA, GAMA, NATA and AOPA, as well as with the government: FAA, NTSB and Congress. He found he liked the beat and fit in easily. “I enjoy working in Washington and interacting with the various personalities in aviation and government,” he wrote in a note to this writer 10 years after being hired. “I believe I represent AIN well and that we have raised our profile here.” However, he also missed working among other AIN staff members in New Jersey, saying, “Sometimes, I feel out of the loop, not being able to participate in editorial meetings and talking shop. But that comes with ‘out house’ work.” Regular conference calls later helped.
Sort of Retired
Although Lowe no longer works full-time for AIN, he continues to write for the company, contributing news stories and articles on an ad hoc basis.
He remains an ardent Penn State football fan, and still gets season tickets (now on the 50-yard line) for Nittany Lions home games. He also enjoys Nascar, which was introduced to the Lowe brothers by their aunt who worked at Piper. Chevy Corvettes, of which he’s owned several, remain a lifelong passion.
Photography is another of Lowe’s interests and he can be seen at aviation events of all varieties, for work and pleasure, carrying a Nikon with a long telephoto lens. He also loves to walk long distances and explore unknown cities by foot. (This writer well remembers becoming “temporarily disoriented” with Paul one evening as we walked for more hours than we had intended around the town of Noisy-le-Grand, France, after working on AIN’s Paris Air Show staff during the day.)
Aviation aside, Paul’s ultimate pleasure remains a Penn State football victory, followed by a good cigar, a good single-malt scotch and a great steak grilled very rare.
