Died March 2, 1939 – September 24, 2013,Kitttery, Maine
College: Davenport
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Widow: Mrs. Kristina Dowd
44 Tower Road
P.O. Box 71
Kittery Point, ME 03905-0071
207-438-0414
603-396-1725 (mobile)
tita52@comcast.net
Children: John F. Dowd, 1962; Christa Winslow, 1963; Jennifer Gallo, 1964; Wendy Young, 1965; Meghan Silva, 1969; Jessica Dowd, 1977; Thomas Dowd, 1979; Abigail Dowd, 1981; Benjamin Dowd (deceased), 1983
Grandchildren: Katie Dowd, 1992; Samuel Dowd, 1993; Elizabeth Dowd, 1995; Buddy Dowd, 1996; Timmy Dowd, 1998; Laurence Dowd, 1999; Teddy Dowd, 2001; Thomas Dowd, 2004; Rebecca Dowd, 1989; John F Dowd IV, 1991; Robert Young, 1991; Samuel Young, 1995; Max Young, 2003; Benjamin Young, 1999; Tonio Silva, 1992; Miguel Silva, 1990; Gabriella Silva, 1997; Sabina Silva, 1999; Sebastien Hall, 2003; Jacob Hall, 2005; Oliver Hall, 2007; Liam Hall, 2010; Wendy Gallo, 1980; Philip Gallo, 1983; Cassie Gallo, 1982; Carlie Gallo, 1984; John Gallo, 1987; Timothy Gallo, 1989; Randi Gallo, 1991; Thomas Gallo, 1994; Meggi Gallo, 1997; Kealee Gallo, 2003; Kaisa Dowd, 2008; Seamus Dowd, 2010; Ava Daniels, 2008; Adriana Daniels, 2010
September 26, 2013 2:00 AM
KITTERY POINT, Maine — John Francis Dowd went home to his Lord and Savior on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013, surrounded by loved ones in the home he built on Gerrish Island, Kittery Point.
He was born March 2, 1939, in Rockville Centre, Long Island, N.Y.
He was captain and MVP for his collegiate basketball team, graduating in 1961 with a Navy ROTC commission from Yale University.
He earned his coveted Naval Aviator wings and served two combat tours in Vietnam, receiving the Purple Heart after ejecting from his crippled F-4. He continued his aviation career with commercial airlines, eventually retiring from TWA.
He cherished leading Sunday school at Kittery Point First Baptist Church.
He is survived by his wife, Kristina Dowd; his children, John, Christa, Jen, Wendy, Meghan, Jess, Tom and Abigail; 39 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren to his credit.
He was predeceased by his first wife, the mother of his children, Wendell (Harter) Dowd; and his son, Ben.
SERVICES: A time of visitation for family and friends will take place from 3 to 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27, in his residence at 44 Tower Road. A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 28, in the First Baptist Church of Kittery Point, 636 Haley Road. Burial with military honors will be in Calverton National Cemetery, Calverton, N.Y. Lucas & Eaton Funeral Home, 91 Long Sands Road, York, is directing arrangements. Vist www.lucaseaton funeralhome.com
FOR GOD, FOR COUNTRY and FOR YALE – Wither Thou Goest ?
In the movie “The Deer Hunter” there was a scene of a wedding reception venue where a banner declaring , ”SERVING GOD AND COUNTRY PROUDLY” dominated the room. This made me reflect on Yale’s motto” For God For Country and For Yale” and how Yale had drifted so far from that standard. And it was not without warning that Yale went astray. In 1937 in his installation address, Yale President Charles Seymour prophesies, “I call on all members of the faculty, as members of a thinking body, freely to recognize the tremendous validity and power of Christ in our life and death struggle against the forces of selfish materialism. If we lose that struggle, judging from present events abroad, scholarship as well as religion will disappear.” Seymour, described then by Time Magazine as suave and tweedy, was a scholar, historian, and pedigreed Yalie and not considered a religious fanatic.
William Buckley in “God and Man at Yale” (1951) sounded a similar klaxon, accusing Yale of encouraging its students to embrace the growing creed of liberalism and its unofficial religion secular humanism. Now there are many disquieting signs that President Seymour and Buckley were correct; with the disappearance of Christianity from the universities, scholarship is also disappearing. The decay of belief in an unchanging God is now being followed by the decay in belief in the existence of unchanging physical laws underlying the natural world. The daily newspapers are full of absurd statements made by social science “luminaries,” chief among them being those dealing with global warming and evolution.
Against Buckley’s and Seymour’s forewarnings Yale crept away from “ For God” which soon led to the fall of the next domino “For Country.” This was presented graphically to me and three other Yalies in my Navy fighter squadron as we read a newspaper article wherein Kingman Brewster, then current President of Yale, was photographed presiding over a flag-burning anti-Vietnam war protest. As incredible as that was then, it must be more incredible to Yalies now that four Yale men together were engaged daily in the air battle over North Vietnam.
In the movie scene depicted above and in the same time span that Brewster led a flag burning rally, the “uneducated”, hard working folks of the time had not lost sight of God and country, whereas the effete and narcissistic pseudo-intellectuals had, and with the Ivy League at the vanguard. Who would believe that Yale was chartered to educate Congregationalist ministers and that the University of Chicago was once a Baptist school. It seems that much of undergraduate college education in general and at Yale in particular now centers on extracting all sense of religion and patriotism from the unwitting student who thinks he is becoming an “intellectual.”
Indeed, Yale has stealthily marched away from its founders and early leaders’ vision in small measured steps and a new motto must be considered:
”For secular humanism, world order and me.”
If my words strike a chord, I highly recommend that you read the first chapter of John in the New Testament, ” Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis and “The Physics of Christianity” by Frank Tipler.