One of two New Zealanders on the 1953 British expedition, Mr Lowe helped establish the final camp 300 metres below the summit on May 28, 1953.
The next day, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the peak.
Sir Ed's son Peter today remembered Mr Lowe as a talented man who shared his father's passions for climbing and helping others.
Mr Lowe contributed to the mountaineering community in New Zealand and overseas, including the education of people living in near Mt Everest in the Himalayas, which were "were real priorities for George", he told Radio New Zealand.
"That's perhaps one of the really significant thing about today losing George. It just is another stamp of how important this New Zealand connection with Mt Everest is," he said.
He referred to the Mt Everest climbs involving his father and Mr Lowe and their later work building the schools and hospitals.
"It's been a long New Zealand involvement with the highest mountain on the planet."
In recent years Mr Lowe's health had declined, Mr Hillary told RNZ.
"He became very much more frail - no longer the robust and very articulate man he was for most of his life and he just sort of slipped under the radar in those final years.
"It's a sad day."
