Frederick downs biography

Rev. Dr. Frederick S. Downs IM India Alumnus Called Home

Reverend Dr. Frederick (Fred) S. Downs, an alumnus of International Ministries (IM), passed away on May 19, 2024, 2024, in North Carolina, at the age of 92.

Fred was born on February 15, 1932, in Tura, Assam, India, He was brought up on the mission field of Assam. His parents, Dr. E.S. Downs and Gladys Hall Downs, were medical missionaries in Assam. Fred’s father was also a mechanic, builder, plumber, hiker and father. His mother was a nurse, but in the early years she was primarily the teacher of all four of the Downs children.

When Fred was nine years old the Downs family returned to the U.S. and due to the Second War breaking out the family did not return to India for better than four years. Fred entered public schools for the first time in fifth grade.  This was a difficult time. Fred’s father returned to India leaving him as the only “man” in the house with his mother and three sisters.  A year later his mother also returned to India leaving all four children in a home for that purpose. The next year Fred’s young

Frederick Downs Jr. (Rick) ’79

 

Born in Jorhat, Assam in 1961 to missionary parents, Rick started Woodstock in 1968 and graduated with the Class of 1979 as Valedictorian. He was the second generation of Downs to attend Woodstock. His father and an aunt attended Woodstock in the 1940s and 1950s. Another aunt, Carol (Downs) Mumby was the school nurse at Woodstock and married to the Director of Athletics, Win Mumby. The current school gym was built in his memory. Rick’s siblings, Milton and Susan, also attended Woodstock. His sister Susan returned to teach at Woodstock for a number of years.

 

After graduating from Woodstock, Rick attended Oberlin College. He graduated in 1983, majoring in History and Philosophy. At Oberlin, he met his wife, Sadhana, who grew up in Old Delhi. After college, Rick studied law at the University of Virginia and graduated with a JD in 1986, that led to a job at an international law firm in New York City where he practiced Corporate Law for six years. In 1992, Rick left the practice of law to join an Oberlin classmate in Boston to st

Dr Frederick S. Downs ’49

 

Fred Downs has spent his life in service to the Church and to theological education in India. He was born of missionary parents at Tura, Meghalaya, in 1932. An official member of the Class of 1949, he attended Woodstock from 1946 to 1948. Following graduation, he embarked on a rigorous path of academic and theological study, receiving a BA in History from the College of Wooster, a BD from Colgate Rochester Divinity School, and a PhD from St Andrews University in Scotland in the field of Church History. In 1960 Fred and his wife, Mary, were appointed to Eastern Theological College in Jorhat, Assam, as missionaries. There, he served as Professor from 1961 to 1969 and also as Acting Principal from 1963 to 1966. Nearly thirty years later, he would return to the college as Visiting Professor of History of Christianity from 1997 to 1998. During his time in Assam, Fred served as Vice-President of the Council of Baptist Churches in North East India (CBCNEI) in 1963 and 1968. While in Bangalore, he also worked in the area of the history of Christianit

Copyright ©bilders.pages.dev 2025