HENRY ERNEST DOWNER
1885 - 1968
Henry Ernest Downer, Horticulturist Emeritus, who died in
Poughkeepsie on September 8, 1968, was born on August 17,
1885 in Ryde, on the Isle of Wight. On March 12, 1912
he received a diploma from the Royal Botanic Gardens in
Kew and became head of its tropical propagating department
He left England, however, in 1912 and came to the United
States.
After working a short while with commercial florists and
on the estate of Thomas Alva Edison he went to Smith
College in 1914 as horticulturist and stayed there for
six years. In 1920 he came to Vassar College as College
Gardener, became Superintendent of Grounds in 1922, was
appointed Horticulturist as well as Superintendent of
Grounds the next year, and retired in 1952. He taught
courses in the principles of flower and vegetable garden-
ing and in fruit and plant propagation. His campus walk
was a feature of the morning activities of Founder's Day.
With the able assistance successively of William Stopher
and John Brown as head gardeners, he enhanced the beauty
of the college grounds, whose landscaping had been con-
tinued by Loring Underwood, landscape architect of the
college. In this he was fortunate for most of his career
at Vassar in having an adequate and able staff, whose
devotion he earned by his kindly thoughtfulness of them
and their families. In 1942 the Trustees named two oak
groves after him.
Professionally Henry Downer's activities and reputation
spread increasingly beyond the campus. Until 1943 he was
a member of the staff of Popular Gardening Magazine and a
frequent Contributor to The Gardeners’ Chronicle of America
and other gardening magazines. From 1945 to 1949 he con-
ducted a weekly column, "The Gardener's Forum," in the
New York Herald Tribune and a weekly column on gardening
for the New York Sun. He contributed a chapter on annuals
and perennials to Gardening with the Experts (written by
twelve noted horticulturists) in 1941 and an appendix to
Montague Free's All About the Perennial Garden (Doubleday,
1952); and he was co-author with Fred J. Nisbet of Flowers
and Roses, which appeared in 1962. Besides five articles
written for Vassar publications, he contributed to the
following encyclopedias: New Garden Encyclopedia (ed.,
HENRY ERNEST DOWNER (continued)
E.L.D. Seymour and others, Wise and Co., 1936), 10,000
Garden Questions (ed., F.F.Rockwell, American Garden
Guild and Doubleday and Co., 1944), and the New Illus-
trated Encyclopedia of Gardening (ed., T.H.Everett,
Graystone Press, 1960). He wrote How to Plant and Care
for your Garden for the Home Service Booklets about 1939.
He and others contributed to Favorite Flowers in Color
(ed., E.L.D.Seymour, Wise, 1948); and with John Strohm
and Fred J. Nisbet he edited The Golden Guide to Flowers
(New York, 1962). He was a member of the Hortus Society,
a group of distinguished horticulturists from New York
and New Jersey. He was a judge of the garden and flower
displays in Cooperstown, N. Y., and of the New England
Flower Show, and for many years a judge of the National
and the International Flower Show. After his retirement
he and his second wife conducted eight tours to famous
gardens in Europe and in 1964 a tour around the world.
Locally and in the county, too, he contributed much. The
planters of dogwood on Main Street were put in at his
advice in 1961. For many years from 1940 he was Chairman
of the Town of Poughkeepsie Planning Commission, President
of the Dutchess County Horticultural Society, superintendent
of the flower show of the Dutchess County Fair, a director
and secretary of the Vassar Bank before it merged with the
First National Bank, and Chairman of the Board of the
Vassar Office of the Marine National Bank of Southeastern
New York from 1961 to 1967. He served on the Board of
Education of the Arlington School District as auditor in
1930-31, clerk 1932-November 1933, and President, November
1933 - July 1936. Later he taught a course in practical
gardening in the Arlington Adult Education Program.
Henry Downer took a dim view of governmental handouts and man-
made work in which men had little interest. As a citizen
he was active in local politics, being informed, articulate,
and fearless in expressing often tough-minded views. He
was frequently the nemesis of the local politician whose
performance did not meet high standards of honesty and
good sense. As Superintendent of Grounds at Vassar he would
HENRY ERNEST DOWNER (continued)
never condone that lawns should be used as shortcuts
and flower borders be picked from just because they
were there -- and this applied to every member of the
college comunity. He had a reverence for plants of
all kinds and an insatiable curiosity for identifying
plant material -— even if sometimes an inquirer's
interest was casual. A man of principles and strong
character, he truly had his feet on the ground which he
deeply loved.
Richard Brooks
Gordon Post
Sven Sward, Chairman