For as long as I’ve worked at McNeel, @lowell has reminded me to always ask “Why would you want to do that?”. Most people start their requests with “Will you please add (xyz feature) to Rhino?”. After five rounds of “Why would you want to do that?” the actual problem someone is experiencing emerges - and often the solution is different than the original request.
As a founder of McNeel, Lowell helped forge the McNeel culture, grow McNeel into the largest Autodesk reseller in the USA, and give birth to Rhino. As one of the original five-person Rhino development team, Lowell has been central to many features in Rhino: A short list includes Dimensioning and Annotation tools, UnrollSrf, Blend, BlendCrv, Sweep1, Sweep2, Loft, and Patch. I bet there are hundreds more.
Lowell, thank you for your kindness, your creativity, your dry sense of humor, and your willingness to help. Thanks for being a source of calm when I’ve gone off the rails. And thanks for helping to keep things simple when they get complicated.
On July 1, Lowell will be retiring from McNeel. Please wish him well on his way, and let him know how his work has helped you!
Back in the early AutoCAD days, this would have been the mid-1980’s, I took a couple classes at McNeel. Lowell spotted me as a potential employee should that opportunity arise. It did in late 1987 and I’ve had the pleasure to work with him at McNeel since January 1988.
For many of the same reasons Brian mentioned, Lowell has always been one of my very favorite people. I will miss him terribly at McNeel, but wish him the best for this next life chapter.
Dang, Lowell, I was hoping to see you on my next visit to the Seattle office - which should have been last year but we all know what happened. I am still hoping to come by later this year, but looks like I will miss you…
Thanks for all your help over the years, enjoy your well-earned retirement!!! (it’s great, believe me)
– Mitch
Your technical contributions to Rhino can be probably listed and quantified, but your personal influence and part in building the company and even more importantly its culture cannot.
I for one am grateful to have been able to work with you albeit shortly, and even more so for the company you have helped build. I have worked for and with many many people and companies, and I can very comfortably say, this one is by far the best. Thanks for a job very very well done, and I hope your retirement brings you joy beyond words.
Thank you for helping produce the best software in the industry. Rhino has been instrumental in the growth of our company, and I know we wouldn’t be where we are today without the hard work and dedication you put into Rhino.
Best wishes to you and your family as you start the next phase of your life.
I first met @lowell back in the spring of 1986. I was fresh out of college and and working at what was then Boeing Aerospace. Both @bobmcneel and Lowell came down to talk about something called AutoCAD.
I don’t have many photos of Lowell, but here is one with him looking very corporate:
Us at SIGGRAPH in Boston, 2006. Left to right: yours truly, @mary, Lowell and Bob.
Lowell - your as good as they come. Thanks for the memories.
It has been so long I don’t remember the year, I first met Lowell taking a AutoLisp class at McNeel way back in the day. Several years later I found myself working with Lowell on such memorable projects as Allegro, AutoTool and IconTool. I spent a lot of years at a desk right outside Lowell’s office and have learned a ton working with him. It is hard to imagine not having him around the McNeel office and I will miss all of the crazy knowledge and advice he always has about just about anything I ever want to build.
I hope you have a great time in this next chapter of your life, have fun tinkering in your garage and enjoying your family. You will be missed.
back in 2007 I had bought my very first licence of Rhino and ever since I’ve dreamed to become a 3d designer. Thank to your great work you influenced my life more than many people I’ve met in real life.
Hi @lowell , thanks for creating a company and a culture with Bob that has brought so much goodness to my career, it has allowed us to build a business that feeds many families, and along the way we have made so many friends, and had great adventures.
I wish you the best in your next half of your life, especially considering that every time I’ve seen you in the last few years you were always looking hotter, fitter, younger and happier.
@lowell thanks a lot for creating a product that simply changed my and for sure all of my colleauges’ life and believe me, this is even an understatement.
I first met Lowell when Dale Lear, I, and the rest of Applied Geometry made a trip to McNeel to see the precursor to Rhino. The next time was probably when I came by to work with him and Dale (who had since joined McNeel), trying to figure some magic in the AutoCad file format. It must have worked, because not long after that I came over permanently. Ever since, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Lowell on several different projects. I’d do the pure math and he would do the hard part of actually making it useful.
Lowell, I will miss working with you, but hopefully that’s all. It’s only a 20 minute walk between our houses. When you least expect it…
This all sounds pretty suspicious to me. After a year and half of the entire planet being in lockdown mode. Suddenly on June 25th—just as the lockdown is starting to end—and about 5 days after the official start of summer… we read about the retirement announcement of Lowell?.. and it’s scheduled to happen in 5 days???
Somebody at McNeel better give Lowell some Shades, Suntan Lotion, and an Ice Chest… it sounds to me like he might be trying to spend his entire summer at the Beach. And that’s a dangerous place to go if you’re a computer nerd.
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I wish I could have been a Rhino user longer than I have been. It would have been great to have seen all of this unfold from the start. But none the less Thank You Very Much, Lowell… I see that many of your credited features happen to be some of my favorites.
Hi @lowell
My sons who had a wishbone fortune-telling at a Thanksgiving party at Atsuo’s house 15 years ago. My uncle from Seattle was a wonderful memory for my family.
You don’t read and write Chinese, but you managed to fix a lot of Chinese reading/writing issues between Rhino and AutoCAD. Thank you very much and happy retirement.
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