Necrology

Stephen Miner Downey '60

Nov. 10, 1937-Dec. 7, 2021

Steven Miner Downey ’60, P’87 died on Dec. 7, 2021, in Charlottesville, Va. Born on Nov. 10, 1937, in Providence, R.I., and raised in Concord, Mass., he came to Hamilton from the Cheshire (Conn.) Academy. On the Hill, he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, majored in English, and minored in philosophy.

Steve played football all four years, including the Continentals’ undefeated 1959 season, and was co-captain. In his second year, he was on the basketball team and lacrosse team in both his sophomore and junior years. Not surprisingly, he was a member of the Block “H” Club. In addition to athletics, as a freshman Steve was elected to Doers & Thinkers honor society and joined the Biology and Spanish clubs, remaining a member of the latter through his sophomore year; he was on the Newman Club for his first three years. From his second through final year at Hamilton, he was a member of the Young Democrats Club, including a term as vice president. All of these accomplishments led to his inclusion in Who’s Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities. Following his first year, Steve joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves. He was honorably discharged in 1959 with the rank of lance corporal.

After a period of time working as an insurance underwriter in St. Louis, Steve began a career in public relations. His first stop was at Mobil Oil, followed by Western Electric and the Commonwealth Oil Co. In 1965, he married Christine E. Delaney in Philadelphia. They had five children; Christine died in 1997.

Departing Commonwealth Oil, Steve went on to become group director at the advertising company N.W. Ayer. In 1973, he was elected vice president for corporate communications and identity programs for the clients of Schechter & Luth. A year later, he became manager of media relations for the FMC Corp. Then in 1978, he was appointed assistant vice president and director of corporate communications for Brown-Forman Distillers Corp.; he was promoted to vice president for corporate communications in 1981.

After Brown-Forman, he joined Anspach Grossman Portugal as principal in charge of new business development and public relations. Three years later, he became principal of the public relations firm Weeks & Toomey, presiding over the renamed Downey, Weeks & Toomey until his retirement in 2008. 

In 1999, Steve married Kathleen T. Sullivan in New York City. A cabaret singer, K.T. Sullivan, as she is known professionally, performed regularly at various venues in the city, including the Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, the Neue Galerie, and Carnegie Hall, as well as in Chicago, San Francisco, London, Paris, Charleson, S.C. (Spoleto Festival), Adelaide, and on the Hill in 2010 during Steve’s 50th reunion weekend. Early in their marriage, Steve produced the off-Broadway show American Rhapsody, featuring K.T., and created the Marketing Department of America, Ltd. to handle his wife’s engagements.

Steve believed in what he termed “corporate citizenship,” engaging in work to support a working-class neighborhood in Louisville. He arranged for bus services for senior citizens and worked to rehabilitate housing for the disadvantaged. For a time, he was director of the International Center at the University of Louisville, the Louisville Art Gallery, and the Lincoln Foundation. In New York, he held leadership positions in the Robert Browning Society and the William Butler Yeats Drama Foundation.

Steve took an active interest in Hamilton as a volunteer for the Priorities for Hamilton campaign and as a member of the Alumni Council and the reunion planning and reunion gift committees for his class. He was also engaged in the development of the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center.

In recalling how Hamilton influenced him, on the occasion of his 40th reunion in 2000, he gave credit to “great professors like Tom Johnston and George Nesbitt” who may well have introduced him to Browning and Yeats. For Steve the College taught, “that education should help us know how to live, not just make a living. Its emphasis on written and oral expression is exemplary leading toward effective dialogue and debate.” 

Stephen M. Downey is survived by his wife and five children, including Jennifer Swann Downey ’87.

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