Gail S Rowe

Gail was born December 2, 1936 in Long Beach, CA to Lester G. and Alma Rowe. Shortly before his tenth birthday, his family moved to Mariposa, CA where he later graduated with the Mariposa County High School class of 1955, earning letters in football, basketball, and baseball. He attended Fresno State University on football and baseball scholarships.

Gail married his high school sweetheart, Mary Jordan, on Sept 7, 1957 in the Yosemite Valley Chapel.

After graduation from Fresno State, he received his M.A. in American History from Stanford University then spent seven years teaching high school history, first at James Logan High School in Union City, CA and then Mission San Jose High School in Fremont, CA. He left teaching to return to Stanford for his Ph.D. in American History, which he received in 1969.

That summer, Gail and Mary sold their house in Fremont and moved to Greeley, CO where Gail began a 33-year career at the University of Northern Colorado. Between 1969 and 1987, he made more than a dozen research trips to Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Washington D.C. He participated in and chaired a number of committees within the History Department, including search and steering committees and the Undergraduate Committee. He was a prolific writer, producing hundreds of articles and book reviews. His three academic publications, “Thomas McKean: The Shaping of an American Republicanism,” “Embattled Bench: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the Forging of a Democratic Society, 1684-1809,” and “Troubled Experiment: Crime and its Resolution in Early Pennsylvania” (with Jack D. Marietta) received critical acclaim.

In addition to his traditional American History courses, Gail developed and taught “History 398: Baseball and American Society.” The class was an example of Gail’s ability to match his students’ interests, his extensive knowledge, and rigorous scholarly pursuits. The class was wildly popular and illustrates one reason for his numerous awards, including UNC’s Distinguished Scholar Award, multiple University Achievement Awards, College of Arts & Sciences Scholar of the Year, the Lucille Harrison Award for outstanding teaching, the History Professor of the Year Award, and multiple Teaching Excellence Awards.

Gail served in many professional organizations, including the American Historical Society, the Delaware Historical Society, the Pennsylvania Historical Society, the Institute of Early American History and Culture, the Front Range Early Americanist Consortium (Program Chairman, 1995), and the Seymour Medal Committee for the Society of American Baseball Research (Chairman, 2000-2003).

Outside academia, he was equally involved in serving his community. He participated in High Plains Chautauqua, Kiwanis, Habitat for Humanity, the National Heart Fund, and the Greeley Historic Preservation Commission. He also volunteered for the Bootlegger Soccer Program and within Greeley School District 6.

After his retirement from the university, Gail wrote four novels in which he combined his love of history, baseball, and mystery. Gail also devoted much of his time to a lifelong passion for art, creating oil on canvas paintings of the western landscapes he admired so much, many from scenes right outside his home in Greeley. His hobby soon resulted in recognition: he had his work accepted in Cheyenne’s “The Western Spirit” shows, the “Plein Air Rockies” shows in Estes Park, the Art From the Heart Show, and the Lincoln Gallery in Loveland. He also has had four one-man shows and two two-person shows in local galleries.

Gail loved traveling and he and Mary spent a good deal of time exploring. They covered the United States and visited Europe multiple times. They visited their daughter and her fiancé in Alaska and made many trips to see extended family in California. Gail was proud his grandsons were avid painters, readers, Spanish-speakers, and baseball players - and was always excited to join them in any of their activities. Gail spent countless hours researching genealogy, taking walks, and being tortured by ups and downs of the St. Louis Cardinals, the Colorado Rockies, the 49ers, and the Broncos.

Gail is survived by his wife, Mary Rowe, of Greeley; his daughter, Jennifer I. Rowe, and her fiancé, Kip Minnery, of Anchorage, AK; his son, Justin Rowe, daughter-in-law, Jennifer E. Rowe, and two grandsons, Carter and Mitchell Rowe, of Burlingame, CA; his brother, Gary Rowe, and sister-in-law, Ann Rowe, of Martinez, CA; brother-in-law, Larry Jordan, and his wife, Joni; and many nieces and nephews.

Services will be held Sunday, November 20, 2016 in the Pikes Peak Ballroom at U.N.C in Greeley, CO. Note: A previous story in the Greeley Tribune had mistakenly stated the location as the Panorama Room.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health (400 Hamilton Ave, #340, Palo Alto, CA 94301) or the Weld Food Bank (1108 H St., Greeley, CO. 80631).

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Article from the Greeley Tribune (Wednesday, November 16, 2016)

By: Tyler Silvy

Longtime University of Northern Colorado history professor and accomplished artist and novelist Gail Rowe has died. He was 79.

Rowe spent more than three decades at UNC, teaching a variety of courses, including pre-revolution American history and, later, history of baseball — a wildly popular course. He retired in 2002, and pursued a passion for art as an oil painter, specializing in western landscapes. He died Sunday after a brief illness.

“We are heartbroken he is gone, but our sadness is outweighed by our gratitude for what he brought to our lives,” Rowe’s family said in a joint statement. “His intellect, wit, curiosity, love for family and service to his community inspire us to continue his legacy in our own lives. … His grandchildren will miss painting with him, his children will miss his wisdom and his wife (Mary) will miss his constant companionship.”

Following his death Sunday, Rowe’s former colleagues at UNC reached out to one another and spoke glowingly of a man they remember for a quick wit, collegiality and his work with students.

“He was the model of a teacher scholar,” said Fritz Fischer, UNC professor. “He was well-respected in his field. He was known as being a challenging professor, but nonetheless students flocked to him and really loved learning from him.”

One of Rowe’s former students, Mary Borg, is now a lecturer in the UNC history department. Borg said Rowe had the ability to make almost anything interesting.

“He was so smart and told such good stories that he just had his classes in the palm of his hand,” Borg said.

Rowe attended then-Fresno State College and played baseball before attending Stanford University. He trained to be a K-12 teacher and taught for several years, something UNC history professor Michael Welsh credits partially for Rowe’s appeal with students.

Fischer is a fellow Stanford alumnus and former K-12 teacher, as well. He said Rowe’s classes on the American Revolution and colonial history were just as popular as baseball history, but Rowe caught the wave when sports started to be a true scholarly field with his history of baseball course.

Rowe published myriad scholarly research on a variety of topics but also is the author of seven published books, including mystery fiction novels involving baseball. Further, Rowe had his artwork featured in several shows after he retired from UNC.

“He kept himself really busy after he retired,” Fischer said.

Borg, who mentioned Rowe also won professor of the year at UNC numerous times, put it another way.

“He was a real renaissance man,” Borg said.

Along with art, novels, baseball and history, Rowe was involved with the local Kiwanis club, Greeley Art Association and was for years an instrumental part of the annual Chautauqua Festival in Greeley.

Through all of his involvement, he was a “really good friend to a lot of people,” Borg said, adding she’ll miss him very much.

Borg had one more story to tell about Rowe. Actually, it was a story Rowe used to tell quite a bit at UNC. He was a fan of “blue book” essay tests. Once, he asked “What is the meaning of history?”

A student’s response: “It’s just one day after another.”

“He laughed so hard about that,” Borg said.