Shane Lowney

Shane Lowney of Tampa, Florida in the United States is a native son.  Born and raised in Tampa, Lowney is a true Son of the South, loyal to his native city and anxious to give back to the community which has warmed his body and life for all 34 years of it.  Lowney loves flying, with a pilot’s license to operate his Cessna 182, and rock climbing and divining the mysteries of a working engine, which gave rise to Lowney leaving Tampa for the only time in his life, to attend the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida to earn his Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering.  Upon completion, Lowney returned to Tampa to pursue his career, with a new wife in tow, Christine. Together they enjoy the beauty of Tampa today. Shane Lowney’s decision to enter Florida Tech was a natural progression of the insight and understanding of mathematics and science which he had displayed throughout his formative years in Tampa.  Lowney entered an in...

Unknown to residents like Shane Lowney today, Tampa, Florida in the United States suffered from periodic yellow fever epidemics which drove more and more residents away in the 1800’s, resulting in the abolition of the Tampa government in 1869.  The discovery of phosphate deposits nearby in the mid 1880’s, a mineral which is used in fertilizers, encouraged the economic fortunes of Tampa, which continues to be a major source of phosphate.  The arrival of the railroad corresponded with the founding of Ybor City by Martinez Ybor, who moved his cigar manufacture from Key West to Tampa, and the town which was all but dead suddenly boomed with new life.  Tampa was one of the largest cities in Florida by 1900, both through exports of seafood and phosphate and Ybor cigars by rail, and import of the first tourists. Native and Tampa lover Shane Lowney has immediate physical access to the history of Tampa , which was formed by industrialists like Ybor and his cigars a...

In the 1980’s three major freezes occurred in the central Florida area of Hillsborough County in the United States, causing such significant losses that farmers sold their citrus groves to developers who built subdivisions on them.  Another cold snap in 2010 damaged great stretches of tropical foliage and plantings in the city of Tampa, where Shane Lowney has lived and worked all his life.  The production of citrus is a source of pride and a central livelihood to the residents of Tampa and Hillsborough County, and Lowney shares Florida’s temperature-watching every winter. The Tampa which mechanical engineer Shane Lowney knows today has a population over 346,000 souls within a 4-county Greater Tampa Bay area population of over 4 million.  These statistics are a far cry from the Tampa Bay discovered by the Spanish in the 16th century.  From the moment the Spanish set foot on the shores of Tampa Bay, indigenous populations of Native Americans; the Tocobaga, the Pohoy...