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Ray Downs, 1932–2009
Update: The Downs family now has a website up. Go to RayDowns.com for information on the memorial service and so on.
Ray Downs was headmaster at ASIJ during my years there, and the one who signed my parents’ contracts to work at the school. He was the sort of administrator who had done his long years of teaching, making him deeply aware of the needs of students and faculty and willing to consider them before the needs of the private school as a business venture.
Mr. Downs (as well as his wife Lavinia, the school’s head librarian) had an encyclopedic memory of the students who had made their way through the Naka Meguro and Chofu campuses over the decades. More than a decade ago I mentioned that I had gotten a job at Japan Echo, and they instantly asked whether Suzanne Trumbull (an early 1960s ASIJ grad) was still there. Some info on this couple and the role they played at the school is on the ASIJ website.
Reposting a letter from one of his children, since it’s easier to point people to the info here than to forward it to everyone:
To my dear ASIJ friends,
It is with both sadness and relief that I pass on the news that our father, Ray F. Downs, died peacefully on March 27th, Friday. Since his brain tumor diagnosis in May 1997, Dad led a remarkable life, largely due to the untiring efforts and determination of our mother, Vicky. Following their move to Seattle in 1999, Dad’s strength and cognitive abilities improved sufficiently for him to live a fairly full life including taking adult education classes (which he loved – particularly music), walking, birding and even traveling to Japan, China, Mexico and Belize. By all accounts, it is almost miraculous that he was able to do so much and for so long following such a serious brain injury. While he never recovered fully to the point of being the “old” energetic, intelligent Dad we love and miss so dearly, his thoughtful, loving personality was clearly in evidence throughout the remainder of his life. He is and will be greatly missed.
I deeply regret that his four grand daughters (Sophie age 11, CC age 8, Rachel age 6 and Becca age 1) will have never known the Dad who epitomized so many wonderful virtues including humor, intelligence, compassion, and commitment, but as I said to Dad so many times in his final days, we will do all we can to ensure that they grow up knowing what a remarkable man he was. Hopefully, he can go on to inspire them as he inspired his own children and so many others.
We are planning a service in Seattle in late April. Details will be forthcoming and I will gladly pass them on to any who are interested and might be able to attend. Participation by all who knew and loved Dad would be most welcome.
This brings much love to you from all of us,
Constie
Rest in peace, Mr. Downs.
WP Success
Finally got this place updated to the latest flavor of WordPress. I was tired of seeing that “you are in danger of being hacked by Ukranian credit-card thieves” note every time I logged in.
More than that, though, I was tired of never being able to log in. This hosting company isn’t the best I could have chosen. Time to look into new digs for durf.org, I think.
Work remains busy. Baby remains adorable. Last night I had a quick drink or three with Jed the brave JAT webperson. He showed me his MacBook Air and the translation software he’s working on: langwidget. (LangWidget? He studiously avoids the shift key on that site so it’s hard to tell.) Looked very slick—it works in a browser and lets translators share their translation units (pairs of words or phrases for source and target languages) with the other folks using the software, using the Internet and data clouds and magic and so on. Not exactly the sort of product I could put to good use in my unpredictable, nonrepetitive work, but for many kinds of translation these tools are indeed helpful and his may one day be a nice, platform-agnostic addition to their number.
Costume photos
Each year a bunch of us from the company (current and former) get together at the home of the person with the largest home for a Halloween party. Sometimes this is right around Halloween (this year it was a few days later, on Friday) and some years it’s much later. Once it was close to Thanksgiving so we had turkey along with our pumpkin.
Click the pic for photos with captions in Japanese. This was the first time I used iWeb to actually publish anything online, so it was like an adventure! to the land where tightly coded websites are extinct. But no matter. Anyway, I was dressed as Saitô Yûki, the “handkerchief prince,” a high school baseball pitcher who won fans in this year’s national tournament for his ridiculously long-lasting arm and his little towel he used to wipe his face instead of his sleeve. My wife went as a baseball.
Book on the way
Next month it’ll be reading time. T. Miller’s book is on the way! From the looks of things it’ll be a paean to the wise stewardship our nation has enjoyed during this time of conflict. Yup.
(Now with all improved, not so monstrously large image of book cover.)
Matty and the Fish
Matt Staples posing with Daniel Fish’s little tyke, Jordan Lee da Silva Fish. I’m not sure where “Naked Noodle” is located but I’m guessing it doesn’t involve lots of Japan-style hot ramen slurping. The soup splashback could get painful.
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