SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 528 Offered February 16, 2007 Celebrating the life of Louis Rowe. ---------- Patron-- Obenshain ----------

WHEREAS, Louis Rowe, former president of Bank of Bethesda and a former resident of Jamesville, Virginia, died on December 1, 2006, at his home in Rockville, Maryland; and

WHEREAS, Louis Rowe was born in Scotland and moved to New Jersey with his family as a toddler, and he graduated from Rutgers University; and

WHEREAS, after moving to Washington, D.C. in the late 1940s, Louis Rowe began his banking career with Anacostia National Bank and continued there after it was acquired by National Bank of Washington in 1960; and

WHEREAS, in 1970, Louis Rowe joined Bank of Bethesda and was executive vice president and treasurer before being elected president in 1975; he served as president until 1986 when the bank was acquired by Crestar, and thereafter he held various executive positions until he retired in 1991; and

WHEREAS, active in community affairs, Louis Rowe was a director of the Greater Bethesda-Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce and an officer and director of the Bethesda Chevy Chase Rotary Club, and he led fundraising efforts for the Bethesda YMCA, United Way, Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, and the Treatment and Learning Centers, a community and educational organization in Rockville; and

WHEREAS, Louis Rowe loved Virginia's Eastern Shore, home to his wife's family, and he was a member of the Eastern Shore Art League, Citizens for a Better Eastern Shore, the Eastern Shore Nature Conservancy, and Exmore Moose Lodge; and

WHEREAS, Louis Rowe was a faithful member of Christ Episcopal Church in Rockville, Maryland, and when visiting the Eastern Shore of Virginia, he attended Hungars Episcopal Church near Bridgetown, where he was buried; and

WHEREAS, Louis Rowe will be fondly remembered and sorely missed by his wife, Elizabeth, their two children and their grandson, and many other family members and friends; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the Senate, the House of Delegates concurring, That the General Assembly hereby note with great sadness the loss of Louis Rowe; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the Senate prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the family of Louis Rowe as an expression of the General Assembly's respect for his memory.