Meet Glenn Michael "Mike" Lowe Jr.

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling,

but in rising every time we fall.” – Nelson Mandela

Each life is shaped by challenges. Perhaps the most important measure of a life is not whether a person has fallen, but what he chooses to do after he gets back up.

For the people who know “Big Mike” Lowe today, that may be difficult to imagine. At Octane Environmental, Mike is one of the reasons that Octane is known for its safety and work quality. He is a talented, hard-working professional, a field supervisor who pays attention to details, takes pride in doing a job right, and can be counted on when the work gets difficult. He holds every certification possible for his job, is a mentor to younger employees and is an important part of the teams he works with. After eight years with Octane, he has developed a deep knowledge of industrial cleaning and every challenge that comes with the work. 

But Mike’s life did not begin that way. His journey took him through one of the darkest and most difficult chapters imaginable—and ultimately toward an unexpected place of service, responsibility and redemption.

A Life That Took a Wrong Turn

Mike grew up in West Virginia and spent part of his youth in Texas, where he became a standout high-school football player in Fort Worth. He dreamed of attending college, studying criminal justice and pursuing a career in law enforcement.

Those plans changed dramatically.

“Octane gave me a life” – Mike Lowe

During a troubled period of his young adulthood, Mike struggled with alcohol and drug addiction. A fight ended with the death of another young man. Mike owns and accepts responsibility for his actions.

Mike was incarcerated and ultimately spent 23 years in West Virginia state prisons, followed by parole. He served time at Mount Olive, Huttonsville and St. Mary’s Correctional Institutions, earning transfers to less strict prisons by maintaining a clean record.

Twenty-three years is a very long time. But Mike's story is more about what he did with those years, rather than their length.

Choosing to Learn

Inside prison, Mike could have allowed his circumstances to define him. Instead, he built skills and abilities that became the foundation for an entirely different life.

He worked in maintenance and correctional industries, manufacturing license plates, highway signs, socks, tote bags and other products, eventually becoming a supervisor responsible for producing vehicle, boat and other registration stickers. He took college courses, studied business, learned welding and expanded his maintenance and carpentry skills. He even learned to play the drums.

Then something happened that changed the direction of his life: Mike discovered service dogs.

West Virginia’s prison system offers some prisoners the chance to enter a specialized program, paws4prisons, a subsidiary of the paws4people® Foundation. The rigorous program teaches prisoners to train Assistance Dogs. The first level equips trainers to teach rescued dogs obedience, so that they become adoptable. The second level of training, which leads to certification, gives prisoners the ability to train dogs who can respond to up to 100 commands. These are dogs that assist people with disabilities and those with PTSD1, including military veterans and survivors of trauma. He participated in the program during his last five years at St. Mary’s.

For Mike, it was much more than a job inside a prison. It was purpose.

Learning to Help Others

Training a service dog requires patience, consistency, discipline and an ability to understand behavior. Mike embraced all of it.

He trained dogs every day. He would walk them and do the repetitive work of training them to respond to commands. Then, he would expose them to different people and environments, gradually building their ability to act reliably. He escorted dogs around the prison environment so they could become accustomed to unfamiliar people, sounds, smells and situations – so that they learned not to be surprised or spooked.

In five years, he trained 12 dogs. Some went to people with disabilities. About half went to veterans. Others went on to remarkable careers of their own. His first dog, Hobbs, became a cadaver dog in North Carolina – a dog police relied on to alert upon smelling the scents of decomposing bodies. Another dog, Trent, became a cadaver dog before later serving as a baseball team mascot at the University of North Carolina.

Mike's work required far more than training a dog to “sit,” “stay” or “come.” He taught advanced commands designed to help future dog owners regain their independence and confidence. One very meaningful assignment involved teaching a service dog a "nightmare alert" — a response intended to awaken a sleeping veteran experiencing severe nightmares. Mike still becomes emotional when he talks about the Special Forces veteran the dog was trained to help.

Another dog was trained to monitor its owner's surroundings and alert the person when someone approached. Other training involved helping people with specific disabilities, so that dogs could open refrigerator doors, retrieve medicines or liquids, and recognize impending seizures and blood sugar drops and spikes.

It was work that mattered. Mike wasn't simply training dogs. He was helping people for whom a service dog’s love, protection and “street smarts” became a lifeline. Simultaneously, the dogs were helping Mike become a different person, too. “It was the most awesome thing I ever did,” he says.

The Positive Impact of a Second Chance

One of the most moving moments of Mike's time in the program came after he had trained a dog for rape survivor. Mike had trained the dog to assist an owner who had been through trauma; he didn’t know specifics. Eventually, during the process called “Bump Day” (where service dogs first approach, sniff, meet and deliberately bump the person they wish to serve), his dog chose this young woman and was permanently matched with her.

Lacking details of her situation, Mike could not have known what his diligent training would mean to her sense of comfort and security. After further training, she returned to the prison to meet her dog again, and she approached Mike with tears in her eyes to hug him. Taken aback, he was given permission to accept her grateful hug. 

For Mike, the moment was overwhelming. Emotion welled up as he realized that all of his patient work training that Assistance Dog was going to help another human being feel safe again.

He had not erased his past. But he had changed what he was doing with the life that remained. That distinction is the heart of Mike's story.

From the Prison Yard to the Worksite

Mike earned parole and left prison in 2018. But leaving prison was not the end of his transformation. It was the beginning of another challenge: building a productive life “outside.”

He entered the industrial services field. Along the way, he met people who recognized his abilities and work ethic. One was Ernie Rush, Octane’s Director of Industrial Cleaning and a colleague Mike had worked with at a prior employer. When Ernie joined Octane and needed to grow his team, he hired Mike.

At Octane, Mike found a place where his willingness to work, his practical skills and his determination could translate into a career.

Today, he serves as a field supervisor of industrial cleaning jobs of all types. He works directly with crews that clean and remove waste from sites ranging from oil rigs, frac tanks, digesters, pads, and mats to older factories. Cleaning, de-greasing, breaking down and removing industrial waste, especially from confined spaces, is one of Octane’s toughest jobs, requiring PPE2 and close supervision of men working in close spaces. 

“Sometimes you come out of a tank covered in some really nasty stuff”, Mike said. His responsibilities include confined space oversight, equipment operation, training new employees, and making sure the work gets done safely and properly. He describes Octane's culture as team-oriented. Mike's greatest satisfaction at work is being around his co-workers. “Octane gave me a life”, he said – a life that he cherishes.

His life outside work has changed, too. He owns a home and a rental property. His sons are grown and work in construction and coal mining. He married a friend from his childhood. He enjoys golf, fishing, hunting and following his beloved West Virginia Mountaineers.

For Mike, these ordinary details represent a life rebuilt.

What Mike Knows About Work

Ask Mike what advice he would give someone joining Octane, and his answer is straightforward.

· Join the team. 

· Do your best.

· Have a good work ethic.

· Put everything you have into the opportunity in front of you. 

Mike wants potential Octane’ clients to know that they will hire a good company with reliable guys who will get the job done well.

Mike believes that a person can go places when he is willing to work for it. He also understands something that can be difficult to appreciate until life has taught it the hard way: opportunities are valuable, and they have to be earned every day.

That philosophy has become part of what Mike gives back to the people around him.

He enjoys being part of a team and delivering for clients who expect their work to last. Younger employees often find themselves learning from him—not simply about equipment or industrial work, but about persistence, responsibility and the importance of showing up and doing the job well.

More Than a Story About Prison

Mike’s story is one about human potential. It is about the possibility that a person can make terrible mistakes and still make meaningful choices afterward. It is about the importance of education, discipline and work. It is about discovering a talent in an unlikely place and using that talent to serve others. It is about the difference an employer can make when it sees a person's capabilities rather than only the worst thing he has ever done.

The man who once hoped to become a law-enforcement officer ultimately found another way to serve people. He became a skilled craftsman, a certified Assistance Dog trainer, a supervisor and mentor, and a valued member of a hard-working team.

He trained dogs to watch over people who needed them to help them feel safe. Today, Mike is one of the people others at Octane can count on to help make sure the work gets done safely and correctly. 

A life can take an unexpected turn. A person can lose years. A dream can disappear. Yet, there can be another chapter. For Mike, that second act is not a story of where he came from. It is the story of where he chose to go—and of the life he continues to build, one day, one job, one teammate and one hard-earned success at a time.

1PTSD = Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

2PPE = Personal Protective Equipment