Conway A. Downing

NEWPORT NEWS - Dr. Conway A. Downing, 89, died peacefully at home Monday, Oct. 17, 2005. He was the fifth child of eight born to George and Mabel Reid Downing in Painter, Va. He graduated from Virginia State College in Ettrick, Va., and Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn. In 1945, after an internship at Harlem Hospital in New York City, he married Mildred Finch and began his practice in dentistry on Virginia's Eastern Shore. In 1947, he moved his young family and his practice to Newport News. In 1955, Dr. Downing built The Professional Arts Building, one of the first black-owned professional buildings in the city of Newport News. In 1974, Dr. Downing, his brother-in-law, Dr. James P. Shavers, and his good friend, Dr. Gregory P. Carter, built The East End Professional Building, where he continued to practice until January 2005. It accommodates The East End Pharmacy and has been a hub for attorneys, doctors and a multitude of other specialized practices. Dr. Downing believed that civic duty should be paramount in one's life and he set the example. As a founding board member of the Bank of Newport News, a founding board member of the Oyster Point Development Corp., and as a member of the Peninsula Industrial Coordinating Committee, he appealed to other community leaders and elected officials to follow his lead. Other memberships included the Old Dominion Dental Society, the Norman Lassiter Dental Society, the National Dental Association, the American Dental Association, the National Association of Guardsmen, the HM Club, Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, and a lifetime membership in Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. His commitment to his family and his dedication to his community was inspirational, and he will remain a model of discernment, benevolence and dignity. Dr. Downing is survived by his loving wife of 60 years, Mildred Finch Downing; his son, Conway A. Downing Jr. and wife, Marialice Williams; his daughters, Paula D. Peyton and Sharon D. Johnson; his daughter-in-law, Yvonne Custis-Downing; three grandchildren, Carmen M. Downing, Conway A. Downing III and Walter S. Peyton V; one great-grandson, Terrence Ridley; one brother, Willis Downing; his sisters-in-law, Lorraine F. Shavers, Thesso Downing, Myrtle Downing and Theresa Roberson; one brother-in-law, Ora Spady Sr.; his devoted office manager, Phyllis Banks; and a host of nieces, nephews and other relatives and family friends. A funeral service will be at noon Saturday Oct. 22, at Carver Memorial Presbyterian Church in Newport News. Interment will follow at Hampton Memorial Gardens. The family will receive friends from 7 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, at Ronald C. Perkins Funeral Home, 251 W. Queen St., Hampton. Arrangements by Ronald C. Perkins Funeral Home, Ronald C. Perkins Jr., funeral director. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his name to the National Prostate Cancer Coalition, 1154 Fifteenth St., NW, Washington DC 20005, 202-463-9455, www.fightprostatecancer.org.