Mason I. Lowance Jr. ’60

Born and raised in Atlanta, Mason came to Princeton with a cohort of six fellow graduates of Westminster Schools. He majored in religion and English and graduated with honors. He held several class offices and joined Quadrangle. He then took a gap year, driving cross-country on his way to teach a year at the Punahou School in Hawaii.

Back to business, Mason attended Mansfield College, University of Oxford, to earn a degree in English literature in 1964 before earning a Ph.D. in American literature at Emory University in 1967. He then joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he spent his entire career, teaching American Literature and Colonial history, beginning his prodigious authorship of 13 scholarly books and many papers, and enjoying a succession of guest professorships and academic awards throughout the U.S. and U.K. He also served a term as associate dean of the faculty.

Mason was a keen sailor, a jazz clarinetist, and a devoted servant of the class, serving as president, vice president, secretary, memorialist and in several other positions. He died Sept. 15, 2022, survived by his wife, Susan, whom he married in 1963; their two daughters, Margaret and Susan ’89; their husbands; and two grandsons. Our condolences to all the family.