BUSSW Remembers Beloved Alum, Edith “Ditta” Lowy (SSW‘88)

Edith “Ditta” Lowy (SSW‘88), social worker, mother, grandmother, and devoted wife of the late BUSSW professor, Louis Lowy, an international social worker and gerontologist, passed away at the age of 94 on April 27, 2020, in Newton, Mass. Born in Vienna, Ditta met Lou in the Theresienstadt concentration camp during the Holocaust. They reunited at the end of World War II, married in a displaced persons camp in Deggendorf, Germany, and then immigrated to the United States in 1946.

After earning a master’s degree in social work at BUSSW in 1988, Ditta led a long and active life – she is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Susan & Robert Harlan of Sarasota, FL, and son and daughter-in-law, Peter & Linda Lowy of Brookline. She was also the adored grandmother of Nina & David Bann of Wilmington, and Erica Lowy of Los Angeles.

In recent years, Ditta ran a short story group at the Newton Senior Center, sharing her love of reading and discussion, as well as contributing to various Holocaust recordings to preserve her history so others can learn from it.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Louis Lowy Fund in Gerontology and Social Welfare Policy.

The Lowy Fund supports a comprehensive, master’s-level, social work training program, preparing BUSSW MSW students to meet the unique needs of older adults, their families, and the organizations which serve them.