Rowley, 86th president of ASME, dies

Louis N. Rowley Jr., the 86th president of ASME and a former chief editor and publisher of Power magazine, died in December. He was 90.

After graduating from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, N.Y., he started his mechanical engineering career at Brooklyn Edison Co. in 1931. He received his MBA in 1935 from New York University. However, his services as a mechanical engineer were soon claimed by the technical publishing field.

Rowley started working for Power magazine in 1937 as an assistant editor. Over the next 20 years, he moved up the ladder, holding the positions of managing editor, executive editor and, later, chief editor. In 1957, he was named chief editor and publisher. That year, he also became an ASME Fellow.

He joined ASME in 1929 as a student member. Over the years, Rowley became a recognized authority on power generally and in the field of internal combustion engines and gas turbines specifically. His term as ASME president was 1967-68.

Rowley served as secretary and chairman of ASME's Oil and Gas Power Division. He was also a member and chairman of the ASME Publication Committee, Gas Turbine Power Division, the Board on Technology, the Finance Committee and the Joint Committee of ASME and the American Rocket Society.

Particularly noteworthy during Rowley's term as ASME president were his contributions to the Society's Goals Program, which was initiated in 1968 and involved a restructuring of ASME. The overriding goal of the program was to move from being an essentially technical society to a professional society that is sensitive to the engineer's responsibility to the public.

Rowley is survived by his wife, Billie, and three sons, David, Louis and Robert.

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