- June 21, 2025
Skip (Marvin Wade) Lowery of Ormond Beach passed peacefully on May 1, 2025, surrounded by his loving family and close friends. He had an accident while at his mountain home in Blairsville, Georgia, which resulted in a brief illness, and was subsequently comforted in his final days in Hospice in Gainesville, Georgia.
Skip was born in Miami, Florida, on February 8, 1940 to parents Ollie Mae York and Onas Felton Lowery.
When Skip was 8 years old, his parents pulled their trailer into a gas station at the intersection of Granada Blvd. and US 1 on their way to West Palm Beach. They asked where they could park the trailer for a night and stayed here for the rest of their lives.
Skip lived most of his life in Ormond Beach except for his years at Florida State University and his first few years of teaching in Key West where he made lifelong friends, returning in the summers as an Ormond Beach lifeguard and to Vaughn’s Grocery. When he came back here to live, he began his career of 30+ years teaching (English, Speech, World Religion, and other Humanities) at Daytona Beach Community College (now Daytona State College). He challenged his students in many ways and most appreciated him for it. Skip befriended many colleagues who stood by him and shared his life to this day.
Besides teaching, Skip was known as something of a Renaissance man – a writer for many regional magazines with a no-nonsense style that brought many readers to admire him and seek out his opinions and the places he wrote about. He also wrote and acted in his own play about Mark Twain, Stormfield Days, as well as acting in numerous local productions at the college, the Daytona Playhouse, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, the Sands Theater, and others. He was known as an actor who did his job and nailed the characters. Skip was also an award-winning photographer who found that the camera helped him to see. He was a self-taught classical guitarist who participated in many community events including the Madrigal Dinner at DBCC.
Skip was a popular speaker at many civic organizations and didn’t shy away from controversy in an attempt to find out what people really thought. Many a door-knocking religious missionary was very surprised at his knowledge of the Bible and religious history. Often the missionary’s superiors were sent to spar with him a couple of days later.
Skip met his wife Kathleen Hughes Sarni in 1984, and they began a journey of love, discovery, and travel. They were blessed with three beautiful smart grandchildren through his son Wade Stone and his wife Trish. Skyler, Triston, and Tanner amazed Skip and Kathy and helped to make their life complete. Family and friends spent many happy times in their mountain retreat in Blairsville, Georgia.
Skip considered himself fortunate and called it the “Lowery Luck.” His book entitled Ormond Boy recounts the beginning of his luck growing up in Ormond Beach in the 40’s-60’s when life was simpler. In recent years, Skip really enjoyed new friends he made in the Casements Camera Club, and the Mainland Buccaneers he reconnected with annually for social events.
Skip is survived by his loving wife of 37 years Kathy; his grandchildren Skyler, Triston and Tanner Stone, daughter-in-law Trish Stone, niece Beth (Bill) Cox, nephews Bob (Frankie) and Tom (Connie) Mitchell, brother-in-law Jeff (Cathy) Hughes, many nieces and nephews, cousins, innumerable friends, and his sweet dog Tully who helped him and Kathy through the pandemic and beyond. He is predeceased by his parents, his son Wade, sister, Betty (Mitch) Mitchell, brothers-in-law Michael and Pat Hughes, his best friend Jim Smiley, and many dear friends.
A memorial service is planned for Skip to be held Saturday, June 21, 2025, from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at the Volusia Memorial Funeral Home, 548 N Nova Road, Ormond Beach; condolences for the family may be left on the website https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/ormond-beach-fl/skip-lowery-12381135
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Halifax Humane Society.
