Hanover
The sheer amount of information is overwhelming at a passing glance; he has taken the most important documents and put them into laminated binders for safekeeping.
Start digging through it all and you begin to realize just how complete a life is contained within, like a pop-up storybook with every detail dated and documented.
Dow, who died of natural causes in her home on Feb. 17 at 96, left behind a home filled with meticulous notes of journeys she’d taken, brochures of events she helped organize, people she talked to. One of Bob Dow’s folders contains a pile of postcards, notes from friends and strangers from across the country, thanking Dow for various reasons. Another is of partially completed self-portraits. Another contains a scrapbook made by Dow of ticket stubs and newspaper articles she had collected since childhood.
Dow, according to those who knew her, could be best described as a ball of energy, illustrated by the number of activities she devoted her time to. She was devoutly Catholic and a loyal parishioner at St. Denis Church in Hanover, where she served as grand regent to the Catholic Daughters of the Americas. Over the course of her life, she was a den mother for the Cub Scouts, president of the Child Study Group, president of the Hanover Parent Teacher Association, a secretary for the Hanover High School guidance office, a clerk for the Hanover School District.
A loyal Democrat, she was head supervisor of the voter registration checklist; a tutor in the Adult Tutorial Program; and director of the Hanover Teen Canteen, a social program for Hanover teenagers. The Dows also served as a host family for A Better Chance, which grants African-American students from low-income families access to prestigious educational opportunities.
In her spare time, she visited the elderly at the Hanover Terrace Health and Rehabilitation Center and volunteered at the Upper Valley Hostel, where she served as president of its board of directors. She worked for the Dartmouth College athletic department for nearly 20 years as a secretary for various coaches and numerous intercollegiate sports. She also was involved in the Hanover Lions Club boat show and The Prouty, was a student at the Institute for Lifelong Education at Dartmouth and a hostess at the Hanover Historical Society’s Webster Cottage Museum.
Through it all, Dow kept track of her progress and kept notes of the things she did. Since her passing, Bob Dow has done his best to list everything his mother was involved in around town. But perhaps the better question is, what wasn’t Dow involved in?
“People knew her,” said Aileen Chaltain, one of Dow’s neighbors on Carter Street, just a stone’s throw from the Hanover Co-Op and Dartmouth College’s athletic fields.. “People just knew who she was. … She was just made that way. She liked it. She wasn’t nosy, but she knew what was going on.”
Born on March 12, 1920, Laura Charewicz was the daughter of a textile worker of Polish descent in Lawrence, Mass. She attended Lawrence High School and started dating her future husband, Harry Dow, of Andover, Mass., in 1938, though their relationship was put on hold while Harry served in the Army Air Corps in the South Pacific during World War II. In 1943, Dow was named Miss Kiwanis and was voted as Lawrence’s most popular young woman in a local contest. A photograph of Dow was later painted on the fuselage of one of the B-24 heavy bombers in Harry Dow’s unit.
The pair were married not long after Harry Dow returned home from the war. They moved to Carter Street in 1952, after Harry got a job at Hanover Printing Co., and quickly assimilated into some of Hanover’s most elite circles.
“They were kind of a magical couple,” Chaltain said. “They were one person, just complemented each other and loved each other. They were devoted. You took one look at them and you just knew it.”
The pair had four children: Alan, Bob, Larry and Kenneth. The oldest, Alan Dow, who now lives in South Windsor, Conn., said he always felt comfortable living among the elite academia of Hanover. Dow did not attend college and Harry Dow did not finish high school, but the chemistry of his parents’ relationship, as well as Laura’s curiosity and Harry’s industrious work ethic, helped the pair fit in.
“I never felt like an outsider,” Alan Dow said. “I feel like a third of that town is people associated with (Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center), a third is people associated with Dartmouth, and a third is just blue-collar people. My dad worked in printing, he never went to college. He was working in town as a professional. But the odd thing is because Mom and Dad were so likable, they hobnobbed with people from every stratum.
“Dad would say, ‘You wouldn’t believe it. We played bridge last night and I was the only working blue-collar guy in a group of 20.’ ”
In 1966, Dow started working with Dartmouth Athletics as a secretary — now called an administrative assistant — and quickly became a favorite among coaches for her dedication.
“Laura was the administrative assistant who worked with my predecessor, John Kenfield,” retired 27-year Dartmouth men’s tennis coach Chuck Kinyon said in an email. “She was involved with all phases of the racquet sports programs. There was no computer, everything was done by hand (typing … letters to recruits, letters to alumni, etc.). She did it all and was very proud of her professionalism.”
Dow retired in 1984 and was promptly made an honorary lifetime member of the Big Green men’s and women’s cross country teams. The 1985 Dartmouth Relays also was dedicated in her honor.
“She loved working for/with the coaches and had a unique relationship with everything that worked with her,” Sheila Fifield, an administrative assistant of donor stewardship with Dartmouth who worked with Dow for many years, said in an email. “She was a fiery, petite woman with a giant glint in her eyes. … She was an honest, hardworking intelligent and fun woman who loved to chat and wasn’t afraid to voice her opinion which led to some lively office discussions.”
Former Dartmouth football standout Alan Rozycki, now a retired pediatrician living in Norwich, met the Dow family through a sign-up sheet that paired students unable to travel home — Rozycki was a Chicago native — with local families for Thanksgiving dinner. He has remained close to the family ever since, becoming something of a big brother to the Dow’s four children.
“She was a tiny woman with sort of Napoleonic-like power,” Rozycki said. “She was extraordinarily friendly, dynamic, always had a smile and a positive word. I became enamored by her personality. She was just so outgoing and positive. And more energy than anyone. She could probably do 20 pushups well into her 70s.”
“She was a special person, the type of person who comes along rarely,” he added. “She was just a lot of energy in such a small frame.”
Dow also was known for her good health, particularly later in life. “On her 70th or 75th birthday, we were like, ‘Hey Mom, can you still do pushups?’ She dropped down and did 20 straight, with a stiff back and everything. They were perfect,” Alan Dow said. “She just looked up at us like, ‘Any questions?’ She was probably in better shape than all her sons.”
Rosemary Lunardi met Dow through church and traveled with her to Rome to meet Pope John Paul II, a trip that many said was one of the highlights of Dow’s life.
“It was a very big trip for her and all of us,” Lunardi said.
Dow’s house is scattered with photographs of close encounters with presidents and celebrities, including the pope and Presidents Jimmy Carter and John F. Kennedy. Bob Dow apologizes in advance for what he calls “a mess,” but admits that organizing his mother’s notes has helped him fill in the blanks in his own life.
Ask around Hanover. Chances are good longtime residents will have met or heard of Laura Dow. If they can’t remember, it’s probably in those notes somewhere.
“You can’t really get a good feel for all the lives she touched unless you talk to 100 people,” Alan Dow said. “I think everyone has the same kind of stories about her.”
A memorial Mass for Dow will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 6, at St. Denis Church.
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.