Two-time Santa Rosa mayor John Downey dies at 91

Two-time Santa Rosa mayor John H. Downey Jr., a prominent Santa Rosa businessman who distinguished himself through more than eight years on the City Council as a deeply analytical and even-tempered local lawmaker, died Thursday.

Downey, who ran a tire company for many years prior to co-founding the former National Bank of the Redwoods, was 91.

He served on the City Council from 1968 to 1976, then surprised many Santa Rosans by requesting and receiving an appointment to a vacant council seat in April of 1978. Even more were startled when he abruptly resigned the following October.

The largest and most contentious issue faced by the council during Downey’s tenure was whether to replace a large chunk of the city’s retail and commercial core, badly damaged by the earthquake of 1969, with a shopping mall.

Downey, who was elected mayor by his council colleagues in 1971 and 1974, strongly advocated the construction of the Santa Rosa Plaza. That position put him head-to-head with former council ally Hugh Codding, who fought the urban renewal plan because the mall would compete with his Coddingtown and Montgomery Village shopping centers.

Serving on the council with the likes of Codding, Clement “Ting” Guggiana, Murray Zatman, Gerald “Jerry” Poznanovich, Gregory Jones Jr., Jerry Wilhelm and Jack Healy, Downey was known as a city father who thought hard and spoke sparingly.

Recalled retired longtime city manager Ken Blackman, “He always went through every detail of every item on the agenda and came prepared to ask the staff and the applicant and other members of the council detailed questions.”

Blackman told The Press Democrat upon the completion of Downey’s second term in 1976, “He is the strong, silent type on the council whose words are always chosen. I have never known him to lose his temper. And when he speaks, others listen, which is not a bad position to find yourself in.”

Blackman said Thursday, “There were an awful lot of people on the council the last 40 years and there was only one John Downey.”

As he left the council 40 years ago, Downey told PD reporter George Manes, “I have tried to take the job seriously and yet at the same time not take myself too seriously.”

Downey’s son and successor at the family’s former tire store, Mike Downey, said his dad “wasn’t really political,” but found great satisfaction in finding solutions to problems.

Retired PD reporter and editor Manes observed in 1976 that John Downey focused on “the more practical affairs of city management, such as utility services and budget issues” and by and large “left the political hyperbole and philosophical debate to others.”

Downey had been off the council for two years when, in the spring of 1978, he requested to be appointed to the vacancy left by Zatman’s resignation. His appointment enraged some critics of the council, among them author Jacques Levy, who charged that Downey represented the same downtown business interests “that have run this council for 20 or more years.”

Downey served five months of a two-year appointed term and then abruptly resigned, citing “personal reasons.”

Blackman, the former city manager, recalls Downey telling him at the time that he felt bad about having lost his temper, and he felt he was having trouble remaining objective.

Reflected Blackman, “With John, it was hard to tell if he lost his temper or not because he was always so calm and reserved.”

Downey was born in 1924 in Hamilton, Ohio, and after high school learned seamanship at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y. After the U.S. joined World War II, he served aboard freighters in both the Pacific and Atlantic theaters.

In 1945, the year the war ended, he met and fell in love with the former Barbara McNutt in San Mateo. They married and settled in San Francisco, where the former merchant marine went to work as a district salesman for the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

That job introduced Downey to Santa Rosa tire retailer Norton Forsyth. In 1950, he went into business with Forsyth and he and Barbara moved their young family - they’d have a total of three children - to Santa Rosa.

Immersing himself in the community, Downey joined and soon became president of the Santa Rosa Junior Chamber of Commerce and in 1957 accepted an appointment to the city’s Board of Public Utilities.

He bought out Forsyth in 1964 and that same year built a new Downey Tire Co. on Fourth Street.

Downey was 43 when he was elected to the City Council in April of 1968. His decision not to seek a third four-year term in 1976 created an opportunity for Planning Commission member Donna Born, who later that year was elected as the first woman to serve on the council.

Downey sold his tire store to his son, Mike, and his son-in-law, Bob Slyker, in 1984. He then co-founded National Bank of the Redwoods, serving as its first chairman.

In his free time Downey loved to fish, traveling often to Shasta County and as far away as Canada.

The former mayor also savored nothing more than a good game of poker. “And he did that until a week and a half ago,” said son Mike, a resident of Santa Rosa.

In recent weeks, Downey endured the sudden death of a daughter, Jill Tavelli of Santa Rosa, and he was buoyed by the weddings of two grandsons and the high-school graduation of a third.

Downey had struggled for several months with cancer and other maladies. He died early Thursday morning at his home.

“He had a good, long life and he went quietly and comfortably,” Mike Downey said.

In addition to his wife of 71 years and his son, Downey is survived by daughter Patty Slyker of Santa Rosa, brother Frank Downey of Culpeper, Va., eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

At Downey’s request, services will be private.

His family requests memorial donations to Memorial Hospice, 439  College Ave, Santa Rosa 95401.

You can reach Staff Writer Chris Smith at 521-5211 or chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.