downs

Hello fellow alumni. This is Penny (nee Goodman) and Bill Downs from frigid Alliance, Ohio.
There's a raging snow storm here as I sit at my computer typing this message.
Penny and I congratulate all of you who have survived the potholes of life to make it to a new millenium and another reunion.
In June it will be forty-two years since we joyously bid one another a fond farewell and scattered in every direction to make our own way in the world. Since we are not able to be with you for the gala affair, I'm including a short bio on the life up to this point that Penny and I have forged together since we first started dating in our Senior year at Northeast High School.

Penny and I each entered the U of F. in Gainesville following graduation. From the start, my intention was to earn a B. S. in chemical engineering.
Penny was initially undecided but by her sophomore year was working towards a B. S. in nursing. She was an honor student and I was not!
In August, 1962 we were married in St. Pete. One trimester later Penny graduated as the top RN in her nursing class. Not long afterwards she became pregnant (too much celebration, I guess), and gave birth to our first child, William Gregory Downs, four days after JFK's assassination.
A few days after that I graduated in Chemical Engineering and began working for Babcock & Wilcox Co. in Lynchburg, Virginia at their Atomic Energy Division.
We were there only about a year, but long enough for our second child, Melinda Gay Downs to be born.
Isn't it strange how the meaning of words change in time. Imagine, in 1964 "Gay" meant happy, joyous.

By 1965 I was working at Babcock & Wilcox's Alliance Research Center in Alliance, Ohio, and that's where I've remained my entire professional life. All of that time I have worked on development of pollution control equipment and processes, primarily for the coal fired electric utility industry.
I hold eighteen US patents, numerous foreign patents and about a half dozen patents pending.
The limestone scrubber that I helped to develop is the standard method used throughout the world to control sulfur dioxide emissions from coal fired power plants.
B&W scrubbers alone have prevented more than 80,000,000 tons of SO2 from being emitted to the atmosphere.

Penny was a stay at home mother until about 1978 when we came to the stark realization that we had not saved nearly enough to meet the burgeoning costs of college. By then we had four children ages 6 to 16 with the prospect of at least 14 years of $10K or more per year tuition.
Penny entered a nursing re-entry program and went back to work full time primarily to fund our kids' education. They all graduated in more or less regulation time.
Greg is a biomedical engineer, Mindy is a Medical Dietician, Christel Lynn is an RN, and Michael Brent is a computer programmer.
The girls are both divorced, but not before presenting Penny and me with five grandchildren.
Both Greg and Mike are married, and Mike and his wife Sheryl are expecting a new arrival any day now.
After Mike graduated in 1998, Penny started cutting back her hours. She now works a few days a month to help fund some extra things like taking our grandkids to Disney World. We took Christel's kids last year, and will be taking Mindy's kids this May.
I'll probably work a few more years before retiring. After retirement, we'll probably stay where we're at with the exception of a little snowbirding in your general direction.

Penny's interests are her grandchildren, sports (especially the Cleveland Indians), reading, and exercise.
Mine are gardening, genealogy (I can Identify about 16,000 relatives mostly of Penny's), woodworking, the Civil War, and surfing the Internet.
I've lost most of my interest in professional sports, being mostly turned off the vulgarity of the athletes and their ridiculous salaries.

So that I have all of the appropriate bases covered, below is a response to the specific requests for information.

Number of children: four -
William Gregory, Melinda Gay; Christel Lynne, Michael Brent
Number of grandchildren: five -
Roland Oscar Lewis, Stuart Oliver Lewis, Nathan Bradley Prioli,
Jenna Marie Prioli, and Melissa Louise Prioli
Street address: 8645 Schubert Avenue, Alliance, Ohio 44601
Phone Number: 330 821-8152
e-mail address: wdown52@aol.com, <mailto:wdown52@aol.com> or
bill.downs@mcdermott.com <mailto:bill.downs@mcdermott.com>
Penny's vocation: Registered Nurse
Bill's vocation: Chemical Engineer

Finally, I'm attaching three photos: one of Penny and myself, one of our children, and one of our grandchildren.