Highlands Residential Services celebrated the retirement and the legacy of Executive Director Dow Harris Thursday.
Highlands Residential Services achieved high performance status 16 times during Harris’s tenure as the executive director. Board Chairman Dr. Robert Owens said Harris will be remembered for his efforts in bringing low-income housing to the Upper Cumberland.
“It’s just amazing, I think it’s probably almost unheard of for a housing authority our size to do the things that it’s been able to do,” Owens said. “And a lot of that has to do with his leadership, his vision, and his ability to get things done.”
Harris served as the Executive Director for the Cookeville Housing Authority and Highlands Residential Services for nearly 30 years. Owens said the experience is what makes Harris so hard to replace.
“It’s just the wisdom, and not just the knowledge, but the understanding of the business and how to run that business or that organization,” Owens said. “That’s the biggest thing is just that those years are walking out the door.”
Harris said he believes his most impactful moment during his tenure was developing a low-income housing project called Willow Heights. Harris said he had a meeting with the residents in that community well before the development came to be.
“I told them, I said, you know, one of these days there’s gonna be a bulldozer to start at the top of that hill and they are gonna push all these houses away and they may not ever come back,” Harris said. “And sure enough, sure enough, one thing led to another, and we tore it down, we tore it down one day, and that started the redevelopment process, the renaming, the rebranding of the housing authority. We turned the ghetto into Willow Heights.”
Harris received the 1999 Housing and Urban Development Best Practices Award and the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials National Award of Merit in 2002.
Harris said he struggled with the decision to retire as he enjoyed working as the executive director. Owens said Harris has had an impact on the employees and board members at Highlands Residential Services and believes his impact has created a brighter future.
