Former Western Kentucky University President, Dero Downing, Has Passed Away. R. I. P. .

Dero Downing dies at age 89
Ransdell remembers former WKU president as a friend, confidant and mentor
By JENNA MINK

When Elizabeth Downing and her siblings were searching for the perfect Christmas gift for their father a few years ago, they asked Dero Downing’s friends and former colleagues to write letters about him.

Elizabeth Downing was hoping to get at least 25 letters to compile for her father - they ended up receiving 125 letters describing ways Dero Downing had touched and enhanced lives, Elizabeth Downing said.

Dero Downing, former president of Western Kentucky University, died Monday at the age of 89. (obit) It’s the end of a journey for a man who devoted his life to WKU, according to friends and family members.

“I used to laugh and say that his priorities were God, family and Western, and not necessarily in that order,” Elizabeth Downing said.

Downing was president of WKU from 1969 to 1979. It’s where he attended college, where he met his wife and where he coached, taught and mentored over the years.

“In many ways, Dero Downing’s passing is a closing of an era,” WKU President Gary Ransdell said. “Not just of this university, but for higher education in Kentucky.”

As a student, Downing played basketball for coach E.A. Diddle and met his wife, Harriet, when she was a freshman at WKU.

“She shared a partnership with him that started on the Hill when they met as students and that resulted in 67 years of marriage,” his son, Alex Downing said, adding that his mother is a strong woman and is going to be OK.

Downing finished school in 1943 and enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He served in World War II as an officer on a ship that carried troops and supplies to the beaches at Normandy on D-Day in June 1944, according to a WKU document.

When he returned from the war, he came back to WKU where he coached basketball and taught math at College High School, the high school division of WKU’s training school. During that time, he completed his Master of Arts degree.

That’s when Jack Eversole met Downing. Around that time, Eversole was a sports radio broadcaster and he would talk with Downing before and after basketball games.

“He was able to deal with people at all levels from students to staff to faculty, they all liked him. They really respected him and he respected them,” said Eversole, of Bowling Green. “He really was a great team-builder, which may have been from his College High coaching days.”

Last weekend, Eversole found a letter Downing had written him about seven years ago to congratulate him for winning the local Jefferson Award.

“He was like that. A lot of folks would just say, ‘Gee, that’s nice. Glad you got it,’ ” Eversole said. “But Dero was the type who would take the time to write a letter and not just to me, but to people all over the community.”

Lee Robertson, who has severed in various roles at WKU, also met Downing during his College High days. In 1959, Robertson was a senior at WKU and he practiced teaching at the training school. Downing was his student-teaching instructor.

While coaching in Park City, Robertson was offered another job and Downing dropped by to discuss the job offer with Robertson. After he left, Downing returned 30 minutes later because he didn’t think they had discussed it long enough, Robertson said.

“That’s the kind of guy he was,” he said. “He came back to talk to me more about whether I should take it.”

After earning an educational specialist degree, Downing was named registrar then director of admissions for WKU. He later served as dean of business affairs before becoming vice president for administrative affairs.

He became WKU’s fourth president in 1969 when Ransdell was entering WKU as a college freshman. When Ransdell landed his first job at WKU in 1974, Downing was still president.

“For the last 13 1/2 years, he’s been my friend, my confidant and my mentor,” he said.

Ransdell remembers observing Downing during administrative meetings. He paid attention to Downing’s leadership style, his firmness, his resolve and his dedication to WKU, Ransdell said.

“Those observations of him have affected me deeply and how I go about my work ... no one lived the WKU spirit more than Dero Downing in his personal and in his professional life,” he said.

It’s something that Downing passed onto to his family. Alex Downing is the youngest of five children, all of whom attended WKU, and remembers living on campus with his parents when his father was named president.

“I was able to live on campus for 10 years, so I was blessed to have my childhood experience during that time period,” he said. “I always felt that I was a part of the plan, which is really a statement about how he felt about his family.”

Elizabeth Downing was in middle school when her parents moved on campus. She later moved to Minton Hall when she enrolled at WKU.

“I grew up going to Western ballgames. We’d walk around campus, and it was just home,” she said.

Three of Downing’s five children became educators. Elizabeth Downing is an attorney and Alex Downing is president of the College Heights Foundation at WKU. Six of Downing’s 13 grandchildren graduated from WKU and two are currently enrolled, Elizabeth Downing said.

“Our dad, he was so devoted to Western and to his work, and his family always came first. He wanted so much for all of us and just really instilled in us the value of education and the value of giving back,” she said.

The family has been stunned over the years by the number of random people who approach them and recount memories of Downing. Many recall times when Downing would take the time to talk with them when they were college freshmen. Others remember moments when he would sit down and eat lunch with them when he was university president and they were students, Elizabeth Downing said.

“He was just somebody who cared about people,” she said.

Funeral is at 10:30 a.m. Friday at State Street United Methodist Church in Bowling Green. Visitation is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday at Johnson-Vaughn-Phelps Funeral Home and beginning at 9:30 a.m. Friday at the church.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Dero and Harriet Downing Scholarship Fund in the College Heights Foundation at WKU.