Community mourns loss of local teacher: Students, staff remember impact of Michelle Lowrey

A passion for students and a love of teaching for over 20 years will be remembered with the passing of Graham High School teacher Michelle Lowrey. 

Lowrey died Sunday, Feb. 8 and a celebration of her life was held Friday, Feb. 13 at the GHS gymnasium, with staff and students encouraged to wear Graham colors.

Graham ISD collected stories, quotes and memories from students, parents and alumni as a keepsake for her sons. 

Lowrey was born Aug. 30, 1960 in Orlando, Florida. She was a 1978 graduate of Bishop Moore Catholic School in Orlando and received her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Emory University in Georgia and her master’s in geology at Southern Methodist University.

Upon completion of her master’s degree, Lowrey moved to Graham where she raised two children, Robert and Johnny, and began teaching at GHS.

Lowrey worked at the high school from August 2003 until May 2021. Following a short stint in Albany, she returned to GHS in 2023 to teach geometry and later returned to her passion for teaching engineering.

Over the years she inspired classes of students, teaching chemistry, physics, geometry, geology, meteorology, oceanography and was the founder of the first GHS engineering program.

Her impact touched the lives of many that walk the halls of GHS, like 2015 graduate Clark Miracle who spent four years in her engineering classes.

Those classes eventually led to a second place award for Flight Endurance at the nationals competition for the Technology Student Association (TSA) and a passion for Miracle that drove his career path.

“Her classes broadened my understanding of the different fields of engineering and gave me a solid foundation in CAD. Before her classes I wasn’t aware of CAD, which has become a basic computer skill for many jobs and hobbies,” Miracle said. “Being able to use SolidWorks and read engineering drawings were major reasons why I was able to start my current role as a technical buyer.”

Miracle said Lowrey went beyond what was required of a teacher and provided her students time and emotional support.

“She was a mentor figure to so many, including me. Her advice on any issue, given during high school, college and even after graduation was so valuable and was always deeply appreciated,” he said. “My one-on-one talks with Mrs. Lowrey after school are still vivid in my memory and have helped shape me into the man I am today.” 

Liam Bailey, a GHS sophomore and second-year student of Lowrey, said she was an inspiration for him due to all she had accomplished with students in the past. 

“I’ve really loved her class. Even though I haven’t loved some of the stuff we did, she always made it a little bit better, a little bit more fun and I really wanted to do all four years of engineering because she was my teacher,” Bailey said.

Bailey said what he will miss most is the talks he would have with Lowrey in class, in between classes and just seeing her in the hallways every day. He said he hopes the program will remain strong at the high school.

“I hope it maintains its integrity and just everything that she did. I don’t really want them to try and change stuff involving it,” he said.

Bailey’s mother Kylie, who also had Lowrey as a teacher when she attended GHS, said she was excited for her son to have the same opportunity she did with a teacher who displayed a passion for teaching.

“It requires the right person to be able to inspire students enough to care, to show up every day and give it exactly what it takes to be able to complete that full program. It’s a huge loss not just to the program, but to the district as a whole,” Kylie said.

It was a combination of her knowledge and experience in engineering along with her ability to communicate and support students that made Lowrey unique to GHS, according to GISD CFO Gary Browning. 

“There aren’t many people who have the engineering knowledge that she has, combined with science and math knowledge, but who are also able to relate to students the way she does. It’s just pretty amazing,” Browning said. “Not only could she handle the content and push the kids forward and support them in their learning, but she also had a great relationship with the students where she was able to encourage them daily and also encourage them for their future.”

Browning previously served as a teacher at GHS alongside Lowrey and said the founding of the engineering program and her passion for driving students directly led to their success later in life.

“We have a lot of students who came through there that went on to be successful engineering students and in engineering careers. Many of them went to pretty prestigious engineering colleges so she did a great job of preparing students for what they needed for the future,” he said.

Browning said her positivity and encouragement of others will be missed within the district along with her dedication to her students.
“She loved that (engineering) program so much. She just had an energy for it. She wanted to see it grow and expand and for the benefit of the kids. (She) gave them ownership of the work and it prepared them for college,” he said.

GISD Chief of Student Services Joe Gordy, who previously served eight years as the GHS principal with Lowrey, said she was a top teacher who built relationships with students and set high expectations she knew they could achieve.

“She took hundreds of kids to Technology Student Association state contests. …During my first six years with her, every year we took groups of students to the Technology Student Association national competition all over the country,” Gordy said.

In 2017, the GHS team the Rocketeer Steers placed third in the nation during the Air Force Association’s StellarXplorers III National High School Space Challenge held in Colorado Springs with Lowrey serving as team director.

Lowrey and a team of students entered the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest and in 2015 earned $20,000 worth of Samsung technology and advanced to the national competition. 

These are only two examples of many opportunities provided to students over the years by Lowrey who helped expand their worldview and interests.

“She was caring, she was accepting, she was friendly, she believed in the capacity of all students,” Gordy said. “Anytime we ran into any scheduling issue, any of that, then she would bend over backwards to accommodate the student and make sure they still had the opportunity to engage in that higher level learning.”

Her efforts as a teacher were recognized at a state level when she was named the 2018 Region 9 Secondary Teacher of the Year.

Alongside her teaching of students, Lowrey was a fluent Spanish speaker who taught adult English as a second language for years.

“She taught ESL in the community to adult learners and helped newcomers, immigrants to the country, get their documentation, their citizenship, learn English, navigate American culture and expectations and all of the community requirements,” Gordy said. “She worked with adults to make sure that they had a place and they were able to gain the language and gain citizenship.”

The memory and legacy of Lowrey lives on through those she has impacted inside and outside of the classroom.