Cherilla Storrs Lowrey
A middle-aged white woman, wearing her hair in a bouffant updo, and a strand of pearls over a satiny dress
Cherilla Storrs Lowrey, from a 1917 publication
Born
Cherilla Lillian Storrs

August 18, 1861
Utica, New York
DiedJanuary 9, 1918 (aged 56)
Honolulu, Hawai'i
Occupation(s)Clubwoman, educator
RelativesWilliam Richards Castle (brother-in-law); William Richards Castle Jr. (nephew)

Cherilla Lillian Storrs Lowrey (August 18, 1861 – January 9, 1918) was an American educator and clubwoman based in Hawaii. She was a founder and first chairwoman of The Outdoor Circle, "Hawaii's oldest environmental organization".[1]

Early life

Storrs was born in Utica, New York. She moved to California as a girl with her widowed mother.

Career

Lowrey moved to Hawaii in 1882 to teach at Kawaiahao Seminary, a girls' school.[2] She also taught at the Punahou School, and was an assistant principal there in 1883.[3] She was active in the Free Kindergarten and Children's Aid Association (FKCAA),[4] the Women's Board of Missions, the YWCA, and Women's War Council.[5][6] She was one of the first two women to serve on the Honolulu Planning Commission.[7][8]

In 1912, Lowrey was one of the original seven members and the first president of The Outdoor Circle,[9] a women's organization based in Honolulu, initially under the auspices of the Kilohana Art League. The Circle was dedicated to city beautification,[10] especially against billboards and in favor of public fountains, parks, playgrounds, and gardens,[11] and "to conserve and develop the natural beauties of the landscape by encouraging the growth of native trees and shrubs, and the introduction of such new ones as belong to tropical life".[5][12] The Outdoor Circle had hundreds of members by 1915, many of them wives of wealthy white sugar and lumber executives, like Lowrey, whose husband was president of the Oahu Sugar Company and the Waiahole Water Company, and vice-president of the Honolulu Gas Company.[5]

Personal life and legacy

Storrs married merchant Frederick Jewett Lowrey in 1884. They had four children together. She died after a stroke in 1918, aged 56 years, in Honolulu.[1][13]

The Outdoor Circle and other friends commissioned a marble fountain by sculptor Roger Noble Burnham, in memory of Lowrey.[14][15][16] A species of loulou palm, Pritchardia lowreyana, was named for Lowrey by botanist Joseph F. Rock.[17] Every year during Cemetery Pupu Theatre, an actress portraying Lowrey tells cemetery visitors her story, near her gravesite in Oahu Cemetery.[18] The Outdoor Circle continues into the 21st century as an environmental organization in Hawai'i. "No environmental group has had such a profound, positive impact on Hawai'i as The Outdoor Circle," Duke Bainum said in a 2000 newspaper interview.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 Canalejas, Laurent (2012-07-25). "The Outdoor Circle goes centennial". The Garden Island. Archived from the original on 2021-11-05. Retrieved 2022-01-02.
  2. ↑ Bonura, Sandra E. (2017-10-31). Light in the Queen's Garden: Ida May Pope, Pioneer for Hawai'i's Daughters, 1862–1914. University of Hawaii Press. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-8248-6647-1.
  3. ↑ "History of Punahou". Punahou School. Archived from the original on 2020-09-27. Retrieved 2022-01-02.
  4. ↑ Castle, Alfred L. (2004-01-01). A Century of Philanthropy: A History of the Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation. University of Hawaii Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-8248-2873-8.
  5. 1 2 3 Margit Misangyi Watts, High Tea at Halekulani: Feminist Theory and American Clubwomen (PhD dissertation, University of Hawai'i, 1989): 91-96, quote on page 95. Published as a book by Carlson Publications in 1993.
  6. ↑ "What Can We Do for the Soldier?". The Friend. 75: 222. October 1917.
  7. ↑ "Millennium Moments: Wonder Woman". Star-Bulletin. October 1, 1999.
  8. ↑ "A Heart at Leisure from Itself". The Friend. 76: 37. February 1918.
  9. ↑ Riley, Glenda (1999-01-01). Women and Nature: Saving the "Wild" West. U of Nebraska Press. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-8032-8975-8.
  10. ↑ "Women Preserve, Enhance Hawaii's Natural Beauty". Hawaii Tribune-Herald. 1982-03-28. p. 76. Retrieved 2022-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. 1 2 Wianecki, Shannon. "The Green Warriors". Hana Hou!. Archived from the original on 2022-01-02. Retrieved 2022-01-02.
  12. ↑ Lowrey, Cherilla L. (December 1916). "A Plea for a More Tropical Honolulu". Paradise of the Pacific. 29: 30–33.
  13. ↑ "Mrs. Frederick J. Lowrey". The Friend: 15. January 1918.
  14. ↑ "Cherilla A. Lowrey Memorial Fountain". The Friend. 88: 153–154. July 1919.
  15. ↑ "Beautiful Memorial to Mrs. Cherilla Lowrey Dedicated by Friends". The Honolulu Advertiser. 1919-06-18. p. 7. Retrieved 2022-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Circle Decides on Memorial for Mrs. Cherilla Lowrey". The Honolulu Advertiser. 1918-09-09. p. 7. Retrieved 2022-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ "TOC Historical Facts". Lani-Kailua Outdoor Circle. Retrieved 2022-01-02.
  18. ↑ Gebers, Samie (June 30, 2018). "Bringing the dead to life: Hawaii actors perform at Oahu gravesite". Hawaii News Now. Archived from the original on 2018-07-01. Retrieved 2022-01-02.
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