Remembering Our Past: Rev. Dr. Fred S. Downs

His parents – Dr. E. Sheldon Downs and Gladys Hall Downs (pictured first in the front row below from the American Baptist International Magazine in July 1927) – were American Baptist medical missionaries who served the people of Northeast India for forty years, from 1927 to 1967. Today, the Tura Baptist Church sits on the site of the bungalow in which he was born.

His early education was a combination of home schooling through the third grade in Tura, India, four schools in as many years in the United States during the Second World War, and three years of high school at Woodstock School (1946-1948), a boarding school established for the education of the children of missionaries in India. He did the last year in, and graduated from, Monroe High School in Rochester, New York in 1949.

Because he had attended so many schools in different states and countries, he had been successful in avoiding taking any high school courses in a subject he hated – history. To him, at the time, history consisted in the memorization of names and dates. “Chronology. Boring.” But if he were to graduate with the imprimatur of the New York State Regents he needed to take two history courses in that final year. One of the two was “exactly what he thought history was.” The other, however, was taught by Miss Bowman. He never knew whether she was a church person, but he believed that through her, God began to prepare him for his life work. She got him excited about “Real history. History for which the what, who, when and how questions only created the data on the basis of which one could answer the only questions that really mattered: the why questions. The questions that explain why we are what we are. Our identity.”

He went on to major in history at the College of Wooster in Ohio (1950-1954) where he met Mary Lois Evans. They were married on 28 August 1954 in Hammond, New York. He also reflected that as he was growing up, he had no clear idea of what he would do with his life. Only of one thing was he certain, he would “never be a missionary.” His parents wanted him to follow in their footsteps. But after watching his father doing “his surgical thing and finding himself out cold on the floor,” he decided that was “not for him.” It was at seminary that he and Mary decided to enter missionary service in India.

They worked as missionaries for four decades, serving at Eastern Theological College, the United Theological College (UTC)  in Bangalore, and serving as Vice President of the Council of Baptist Churches of North East India (CBCNEI), training hundreds of church leaders and theological educators in India.

Fred’s countless articles in national and international journals, and his seven books, bear testimony to his commitment to the ecumenical movement, and to the Church, in the context of North East India.

Fred had a special heart for developing leadership in Northeast India. He often said that the “future of the church lies in leadership development. Without giving importance to research, the church will become superficial and not be able to stand against the forces of modern-day challenges.”

With this vision, Fred advocated for the IM-CBCNEI scholarships program for MTh and Doctoral students.

This enabled many poor students to pursue higher theological studies. Today, there are 127 PhD/DTh degree holders from Northeast India serving in churches and theological seminaries all over India (some abroad) —a dream never imagined before Fred began his service.

Fred and Mary retired from missionary work in 1997, after 10 years at ETC and 26 years at UTC, to Cape Cod. Even in retirement Fred continued to help and mentor students and work with those students who had moved on to become academics and church leaders. As one former student observed, within a decade of his leaving, 50 percent of Principals of the sixty Protestant and Orthodox seminaries in India had been Fred’s students.

After their retirement, Fred and Mary moved to Dennis and became members of Brewster Baptist Church in 1999.  During their time at BBC Fred and Mary served as part of the Mission and Outreach Core Ministry for nearly 20 years, regularly hosting visiting missionaries.

They hosted cookouts for new members, and Fred served for years on the church Advisory Council. Fred’s class on “The Twelve Disciples Who Were with Jesus” was one of the most popular classes the church has ever offered. 

Mary also was an active part of the Needlers and Women’s Fellowship.  (Mary pictured below in green with the “Holy Rollers” team rolling White Cross Bandages).

Fred led three trips to India for folks from BBC, as well as a few other folks from The American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts.  These helped to form a strong connection between Eastern Theological College, and BBC that continues today. 

The BBC Mission budget has supported scholarships to ETC for over 20 years and the mission team has helped raise money to assist with significant building projects over the years including leading the “Partners in Progress” initiative the early 2000s that helped create the “Fred and Mary Downs Programme Center” including much needed classroom space, the “Brewster House” which is used as an income generating visitor housing and then in later years renovating the library and building women’s dormitories.

Fred and Mary made their final move to Carolina Meadows retirement community Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 2017, to be closer to family and joined the Binkley Baptist Church, where his memorial service will be held on Friday, July 26 at 1:00 p.m.

Fred is survived by his wife of almost 70 years, Mary, his three children Susan, Rick, and Milton, two grandchildren, Arjun and Julia, and his sister Jane (formerly the BBC church administrator, currently living with her son and daughter-in-law in Hyderabad, India).   Fred had a truly significant life, and we offer our gratitude to God for Fred, and our prayers for his wife Mary and their family.

Here is a link to Fred’s obituary.

Here is a link to the live stream of his Celebration on Life service.