Robert Lowden, PSEG analyst, archery coach

From the late 1990s to 2011, Robert D. Lowden was an instructor in the archery program that his wife, Candace, has run for 30 years for the Collingswood Recreation Department.

"Three nights a week, for five weeks in June and July," she said, the Lowdens were instructors "for five classes a night, about 100 students."

The recreational classes, held at Collingswood High School for children and adults, have nothing to do with hunting, she emphasized.

But they seemed to be a way through which Mr. Lowden, while holding down a full-time job, found time to help his wife, just as he found time to coach his daughters in other sports.

On Wednesday, Oct. 28, Mr. Lowden, 63, who retired in April 2015 as a procurement analyst for the energy firm PSEG, died of colon cancer at home in Collingswood.

In the 1990s, Mr. Lowden coached his daughters on basketball, soccer, and softball teams sponsored by the Collingswood Recreation Department.

And in 1993-94, his wife said, "he was in charge of the basketball program" while he was also coaching.

"He loved doing things with his daughters," she said.

Mr. Lowden grew up in Burlington City, graduated from Burlington City High School in 1970 and earned a bachelor's degree in sociology at what is now Otterbein University in 1974.

Mr. Lowden helped manage a shoe store chain at outlets in Audubon, Pennsauken, and Willingboro from 1974 to 1980.

"That's how we met, both assistant managers," his wife said. "I was an assistant in Pennsauken and he was an assistant in Willingboro."

They married in 1976.

Mr. Lowden had a family link to what is now the Public Service Enterprise Group. "His father had worked for them," Candace said, retiring as a supervisor at its Burlington Generating Station.

So during college summers from 1971 to 1973, Mr. Lowden was a yardman there and, when he decided on a career, he began there in 1980 as a utility operator.

In 1984, he was promoted to the Salem Nuclear Generating Station, his wife said, "where he was a buyer and procurement analyst for 20 years."

In 2004, she said, "he went to the PSEG corporate office in Newark as a procurement analyst specialist."

Besides the sports which he shared with his wife and daughters, she said, "he was passionate about the Civil War.

"He visited many, many Civil War sites," she said. "Most recently, he got to Appomattox, in September."

Monica Lee has been friends with Candace Lowden since high school.

"He was extremely brave; I told him he was my hero," Lee said of Mr. Lowden. "Since he was diagnosed with cancer, he never claimed that he wasn't feeling well."

Besides his wife, Mr. Lowden is survived by daughters Jessica Floyd and Kimberly, a sister, a brother, and three grandchildren.

A visitation was set from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Nov. 7, at the Collingswood Presbyterian Church, 30 Fern Ave., Collingswood, N.J. 08108, before a life celebration there at 12:15 p.m., with interment to follow in the church's Memorial Garden.

Donations may be sent to the church at the above address.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.fosterwarnefuneralhome.com.

wnaedele@phillynews.com

610-313-8134 @WNaedele