HARRY HOM DOW

Paper Trail

Fortunately for posterity’s sake, Harry Dow felt his handwriting was "atrocious." He typed all his letters, frequently starting with an apology for using the impersonal machine. As a result, his per¬sonal papers provide an unusually meticulous record of his life and career.

Deciding where to house his life’s record, however, was not an easy task for his family. The University of California Berkeley, known for its impressive archives on the history of the Asian immigrant experience, had long hoped to acquire the Dow collection. But for¬mer dean Robert Smith felt strongly that the papers belonged at Suffolk Law.

At a 2002 Harry H. Dow Memorial Legal Assistance Fund fundrais¬ing dinner, Smith approached Fred Dow and his siblings and let the family know Suffolk Law was interested in acquiring the papers. Over the course of several years, he continued to engage them in a conversation about how the school could preserve and promote Harry Dow’s legacy. When Dean Alfred Aman came to the law school in 2007, he took over the dialogue.

In the end, the Dow family was persuaded.

'After thinking about it, we felt these papers really belonged in Boston and at Suffolk, because Suffolk opened up the opportunity for my father," says Fred Dow. "Suffolk is going to take care of these papers well-I believe that."




The archives staff-from left, Derrick Hart, Nicole Feeney, and Julia Collins-pose with Harry’s sons, Alex Dow and Fred Dow, after transporting the Dow papers to Suffolk Law in December 2007.


-TG

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