Capt. Robert S. Downes died 1979

DOWNES, AMEN, GINDY, KELLY, HARTIGAN

Posted By: S. Ferrall - IAGenWeb volunteer
Date: 4/28/2006 at 05:23:13

Retired Navy Capt. Robert S. Downes, 60, a military communications director for the Defense Communications Agency, died of a liver ailment Friday at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.

Capt. Downes joined the agency after he retired from the Navy in 1968. At the time of his death he was director of terrestrial transmissions.

He was commissioned into the Naval Reserve in 1941 and served as communications officer to Adm. Chester W. Nimitz in the Pacific during World War II.

He was born in Dubuque, Iowa, and earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Loras College there in 1939.

Capt. Downes had lived in Montgomery County since 1964.

During his Navy career, he received letters of appreciation and commendation for his communications work from the chief of naval operations and the chief of naval forces in Europe.

Survivors include his wife, Dolores, of the home in Sumner; three daughters, Ellen K. Amen, of San Francisco, Susan Gindy, of Gaithersburg, and Anne Louise Kelly, of Washington; three sons, James F., and Peter J., both of Washington, and Robert S. Jr., of Gaithersburg, a sister, Mary Hartigan, of Chicago, and seven grandchildren.

-Washington Post, Washington D.C., May 6, 1979