Obituaries

Malcolm Scollay Low, formerly of Alameda, CA, died on June 28, 2015, in Walnut Creek, CA. He was 88 years old.

 

Mr. Low was born to Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Robbins Curtis Low (Virginia Wagner) in 1927. A descendent of Seth Low, former mayor of New York City and president of Columbia University, he grew up in New York while spending his summers in Bristol, RI, and Bridgewater, VT. Mr. Low attended the Buckley School, St. Paul’s School, and Fountain Valley School, and was a graduate of Yale and Columbia. He later went on to become a Research Fellow of Computer Science at Harvard, and served in the U.S. Army as an instructor in advanced operational theory for surface-to-air guided missiles.

 

Mr. Low was instrumental in founding several companies that are remembered today as pioneers of technology and engineering. In 1955, he co-founded Acoustic Research, and as a founding partner of KLH Research and Development Corporation teamed with Josef Anton Hofmann and Henry Kloss to bring advanced audio equipment to market. KLH annually sold over 30,000 high fidelity loudspeakers and introduced high selectivity FM radios, tuners, and solid state turntables to the public. In 1968, he was a founding partner of Evans and Sutherland Computer Corporation, located in Salt Lake City, UT, which introduced the world to digital recording and computer graphics. Mr. Low ultimately left Utah for New England, where he founded several consumer electronic businesses and served as a consultant to global manufacturing companies, including Braun, Gillette, and Philips.

 

Mr. Low was a lifelong sailor who loved cruising off Maine and sailing across the Atlantic, twice voyaging to Bermuda and Denmark from Newport, RI. He had an extensive wine collection and over the years was a generous donor of bottles to charity auctions. Regarded as a prodigy in the kitchen, his family and friends were often the beneficiaries of his culinary skills. Mr. Low began writing novels and memoirs while in retirement, working on a family history recounting the Low family’s involvement in the 19th-century China Trade at the time of his death.

 

He is survived by sons Abbot A. Low and Christian C. Low; daughter-in-law Mrs. Christian C. Low (Florence M-H Chu); and two grandchildren, Justin O’Brien and Sophie M. M. Low. He was predeceased by his sister, Caroline Low Kenyon. Mr. Low was married to the former Joan Russell for 56 years; she predeceased him in February of 2008.