DOWNS, Lawrence A.
Source: Indianapolis Star, Sunday Aug 11, 1940 p 5
Chicago, Aug 10 – LA Downs, 68 years old, chairman of the
board of the Illinois Central Railroad, died today at the Illinois Central
Hospital.
Downs, a Hoosier by birth and a veteran of 46 years in the
railway field, had been in poor health for two years and entered the hospital
two weeks ago for treatment for a heart ailment and high blood pressure.
He served as president of the IC for 12 years before he
became chairman of the board of the system. Under his administration a
progressive policy was pursued. Streamlined trains were placed in operation.
New records for operating efficiency were established. Downs had always clung to the theory that an
average man who does the things necessary has a chance to win promotion to the
biggest jobs, even in the largest corporations.
From $60 Month to President – He regarded himself as “just
an average Indian,” and attributed his rise from a rodman at $60 a month to the
presidency of the Illinois Central Railroad to a principle he adopted early in
life. It was “do your job the best you can and always have your eye on the
position just ahead.”
Constantly guided by that rule, Mr. Downs’ promotions in the
railroad business were steady. It often was said of him that he always was
bigger than the job he held and never was unprepared to step into a higher
place when the opportunity came.
Born at Greencastle, Ind May 9 1874 he was one of 8 children
of James and Mary McCarthy Downs. After his preliminary education his father
and older brothers financed his four years at Purdue University where Lawrence
was graduated in engineering, the only one of his family to receive a college
education.
Worked for Vandalia – During his summer vacations he worked
with his father, who was a section gang foreman and upon concluding his
education turned to railroading as a means of livelihood. The Vandalia road in
Indiana, now a part of the Pennsylvania system, engaged the young engineer to
carry rods in a surveying gang. He remained for 18 months until the Illinois
Central offered him a similar job at an increase of $20 a month. At the age of
26, Mr. Downs was appointed roadmaster of the Amboy district at LaSalle, Ill
and in turn served in the same capacity in the Kentucky, Louisiana, Springfield
and Chicago divisions. After having
climbed to the position of assistant chief engineer, he requested a change to
the operating department in order that he might broaden is railroad experience.
President in 1926 – He was appointed superintendent of the
Iowa division and from that time his advancement in the operating and executive
departments was steady until 1926, when he was chosen president of the
system. In 1901, Mr. Downs married Miss
Ida May Mulligan of Pembroke, Ontario. They had one daughter.
Downs was a past president of the American Railway
Engineering Association and a director of the Railway Express Agency, Inc and the
Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company. He was a grand trustee of
the Sigma Chi Fraternity and a distinguished Catholic layman.
He is survived by the daughter, Mrs. John F. Oakley of new
Orleans and three brothers, TA of Princeton, Ky; JL of Champaign, Ill and JE of
Terre Haute, Ind. Funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. Monday in Chicago’s
Holy Name Cathedral. Burial rites will be conducted Tuesday afternoon in
Metaire cemetery, New Orleans
Once Lived Here - L.A. Downs, chairman of the board of
directors of the Illinois Central Railroad who died yesterday in Chicago had
many friends in Indianapolis and had visited here and in Lafayette
frequently. He made his home in
Indianapolis for a brief time in 1901 when the Illinois Central was constructing
tracts from here to Effingham, Ill.
His brother, JL Downs, superintendent of the Illinois
division of the railroad, also formerly lived here.
The Rev. Patrick H. Griffin, pastor of the Church of the
Assumption and among the close friends of LA Downs will attend funeral services
for the railroad executive in Chicago. He also may attend the burial service
sin New Orleans.
Was Purdue Athlete – Lafayette – Lawrence A. Downs, “the boy
from across the tracks,” who rose to be chairman of the board of the Illinois
Central Railroad, was graduated from Purdue University in the school of Civil
Engineering in 1894. While in Purdue, where he belonged to Sigma Chi
Fraternity, he was a member of the 1892 and 1893 Championship football elevens,
president of the Purdue Athletic Association, secretary of the Purdue
Republican Club and official announcer during the 1893 “field day.” He was also captain of Company B in 1892-94
in the Purdue University Military Corps and Manager of the University’s first
Glee Club. He was given an honorary
degree of Dr of Engineering at the University in 1929.
Born in Greencastle in 1873, Downs received most of his
preparatory schooling there. An article
appearing in the Purdue Alumnus last year described how Downs as a 6-year-old
boy in Greencastle in 1879, discovered the fire which destroyed the historic
old Asbury, the first building ever erected at DePauw University.
Dr. Edward C. Elliott, president of Purdue and Eth Baugh,
Purdue Alumni secretary, will represent the university at the funeral services
to be held Monday in Chicago at Holy Name Cathedral. - kbz
