William "Bill" Edward Dowden

Dear Janet, Julia and Sarah
I came to know Bill in his last career. Bill’s task, which he took on voluntarily, was to drag me into the world of online teaching. Bill was a great teacher. Each new skill required Bill and I to talk, and bicker, and practice some skills and it was in those hours working together that I learned how wonderful Bill was. Bill taught by telling stories and that is how Bill taught me too.

One of the things I know is that the average person as seven careers in a lifetime. Bill was an outlier on that metric: telephone poles, cameras and photojournalism, diving, military service, cutting edge instructional technology, building, being a military history student, cooking, baking and a hundred other experiences were absorbed and turned into stories.

As my friendship with Bill grew those stories would bubble out, sometimes with a purpose but often simply reliving an adventure: diving a wreck with friends, realizing the cloud in front of his diving mask was the life teeming in the ocean, almost hitting a moose as he drove to the birth of his child, watching Janet jump into crisis management mode when they came upon an accident, and a hundred other stories about friends and family.

What I learned from his stories is that he cherished family and friends. Bill simply adored Janet. The stories he told were full of love and devotion. Bill was immensely proud of his daughters. Bill loved and honored his mother. Bill was a devoted grandfather and proudly explained what his grandchildren were the world’s smartest. Bill was a great friend and as we talked long and hard about his loves and passions. He always remained in awe of the world around him. I will miss his story telling, his laugh and that smile he got when he knew he had taught me something new about life, which was often.

My condolences to Janet and “the girls.”

Dear Mrs Dowden, Jan, Julia and Sarah.
I know Blair and Tom are at a loss for words about Bill’s loss. He was someone beyond description with mortal words and if you also knew him well, no explanation was necessary and to the uninitiated, no explanation possible.

That being said I have labored to offer a written recollection of our friendship over the past few days with Blair having a read of the draft last night. I have labored over this like Bill and I occasionally dogged and burned a B&W print in the darkroom.

It’s not perfect, but like the SS Patches, it gets the job done. I have saved it as a one drive link to share.

https://1drv.ms/b/s!AuixnRNGCVKArxvqU4swzxpG3ZU-?e=3e8HWZ

In it I quoted Saint-Exupéry’s “The Little Prince”

“Bit by bit… it comes over us that we shall never again hear the laughter of our friend, that this one garden is forever locked against us. And at that moment begins our true mourning, which, though it may not be rending, is yet a little bitter. For nothing, in truth, can replace that companion. Old friends cannot be created out of hand. Nothing can match the treasure of common memories, of trials endured together, of quarrels and reconciliations and generous emotions. It is idle, having planted an acorn in the morning, to expect that afternoon to sit in the shade of the oak.

So, life goes on. For years we plant the seed, we feel ourselves rich; and then come other years when time does its work and our plantation is made sparse and thin. One by one, our comrades slip away, deprive us of their shade.

I have included footnotes so your American Friends could understand better Bill’s Previous Life before Minnesota.

My Condolences
Desmond

Dear Janet, Julia, Sarah, and all of the family. Please accept my deepest condolences on the passing of Bill.
I remember him as a jubilant, fun loving man with a passion for his family and all the things he put his mind to.
I have an enduring memory of sitting in a rubber boat with Bill off the coast of St. John’s surrounded by a dense fog and listening to whales surfacing to breathe. Bill was overcome by the awe of the moment as well as the unbridled excitement that he experienced and shared contagiously to those around him.
Bill always spoke with great love and admiration of Janet and the girls in public and in private.
I will always appreciate the short times I spent with Bill and can only imagine the loss you feel as you reflect on a lifetime of memories you created and shared with him.

Dear Janet and Family
My condolences on your loss. I sit here struggling to write a few utterly inadequate words…so many wonderful times – on (and in) the water, with you and the girls, Mrs. Dowden’s always welcoming home. Impossible to articulate how much I valued his friendship. But I can write, with conviction, he dearly loved his family was a great friend and that we will all miss him.
Blair, Jenn and John

I was shocked and saddened to hear of Bill’s passing. I knew Bill from my time in 515 North Atlantic Air Cadets. My condolences to his family. My thoughts and prayers are with you during this time of sorrow.

It’s with great sadness that I write these few lines about my long time friend.

Bill we enjoyed a long friendship and some great times together from diving on the PLM on New Years Day in minus 2 degree water to long drives to the far corners of Newfohndland to do underwater inspections. I will cherish the photos you took, the times we spent cutting across Conception Bay in the zodiac.

As Vince Gill said ” Go rest high on that mountain your work on earth is done.”

To Janet, Julia, Sarah, Mrs. Dowden and the entire family my deepest condolences on the loss of your husband, father, son and brother.

So sorry to hear of Bill’s passing. He was my best friend during our teenage years. We were in air cadets together and I spent countless hours at the Dowden home during this time. Bill was always happy with a genuine smile on his face. My thoughts are with his family at this time. He will not be forgotten.

Both shocked and saddened. I knew Bill from our days together in the 515 North Atlantic Air Cadet Squadron. A couple of years older than I, Bill was a mentor for many of us in Photography and on the Rifle Team. I will always remember his uniquely, wry smile which inevitably presented itself when he was pulling your leg. Condolences to his family. Farewell, Bill! On to the next, great adventure!

Bill and his entire family share a love and genuine kindness every day. A true friend, an honest man, an incredible human. We have all lost so much. So much love and sympathies to his amazing family. You are all loved.