Sir Frank Lowy’s wife Shirley dies in Israel at age 86
Shirley Lowy, the wife of billionaire Westfield founder Sir Frank Lowy, has died in Israel after a long battle with illness.
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Shirley Lowy, the wife of billionaire Westfield founder Sir Frank Lowy, has died in Israel after a long battle with illness.
The family revealed her passing, which occurred on December 9, in a statement released on Saturday night.
“It is with deepest sorrow that we confirm the passing of Shirley Lowy, our beloved wife, mother, grandmother-in-law and great grandmother,” the family said.
“She passed away peacefully at the age of 86, in Tel Aviv, comforted in her last days by her husband, Frank, and her closest family including sons David, Peter and Steven.”
Lady Lowy, who married Sir Frank in 1954, was there at the foundations of Westfield, which transformed shopping in Australia with its American-style malls.
“Her loss to us is immense and will be deeply felt forever. While she never sought a role in our family’s involvement in corporate life, she provided the secure base on which it was built. She kept us conscious of the most important things in life,” the family added.
“We will always honour her memory and take some small comfort in the fact that the good she did touched thousands of lives.”
The Lowys had moved to Tel Aviv, Israel, in their twilight years, with Sir Frank selling Westfield for $33 billion in 2017.
That same year he was knighted, but Lady Lowy was unable to attend the ceremony in London because of Alzheimer’s disease, which marked her final years.
Lady Lowy was born in Sydney and lived in some of her early life in Bondi.
She met Sir Frank, now 90, at a Chanukah party in 1952 and they married 18 months later.
The couple had three sons David, Peter and Steven, and Lady Lowy cared for the children as Sir Frank worked in his business.
When the boys had grown up, she went to university and completed an arts degree but prioritised her family life over paid work.
Lady Lowy used an inheritance to set up The Chai Foundation, which helped Jewish families who were struggling.
She funded scholarships at Moriah College, a private school in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, which covered their full tuition fees for 13 years.
The scholarship was aimed at “ordinary” rather than “gifted” students.
In Israel, she set up houses for children from troubled families, taking an interest in them and remembering their birthdays, according to family sources.
Sir Frank, who was chairman of Football Federation Australia for 12 years, spoke of her illness in a documentary released in 2019.
“It was maybe six to 12 months when she was sick and was not sick and you were hoping, running to doctors, making inquiries whether there is a cure or no cure,” he said in the film What Will Become of Us.
The film also shows him putting a prayer into the cracks at Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall, a common pilgrimage for Jewish people.
“No amount of prayers will help me or her — just maybe make it a bit easier,” he said, according to a report in The Australian.
“I am writing a note. To God. To look after my wife.”
Lady Lowy is survived by Sir Frank, David, Peter, Steven, Margo and Judy Lowy, their 11 grandchildren, their partners and seven great grandchildren.
stephen.drill@news.co.uk
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