Engineering success

Bob Downing, 95, former vice chairman and chief operating officer of Burlington Northern, helped broker the railroad land trade in downtown Spokane that made Expo ’74 a reality. He was also a prime mover behind the 1970 merger of four of the country’s railroads. He and his wife, Mary, retired to Spokane in 1976. Downing recently shared some of his reflections with editorial board member Rebecca Nappi.

 I graduated from Yale University in 1935 and got a job on the Pennsylvania Railroad as a civil engineer. When I was hired in 1935 we were still in the Great Depression but working out from it. Then they had a recession in 1938, and I was laid off. I had just gotten married in 1937.

 The greatest lifelong effect of the Depression? You didn’t buy things unless you had the money. I eventually got a credit card, but I always paid the balance every month. I still do.

 A chief executive should not be too nervous now. This too shall end. I was in the Navy in the war. When you are changing course, the officer on the deck will tell the man steering, “Steady as you go.” I think that’s a good admonition in these tumultuous times.

 On the railroad merger: I was a Great Northern man. Everyone knew it. But you wanted to be sure the officers of the Northern Pacific and the Burlington felt fairly treated. We were in a tough competitive situation, with trucks and so forth. If we didn’t do a good job of running a merged company, we wouldn’t survive.

 The long-distance rail passenger business was largely lost to the airlines by the end of the 1960s. Congress said if you fellows ran the passenger business right, it would be profitable. And so the government set up a government-owned corporation, Amtrak. As expected, it runs a deficit.

 Railroad cargo is booming. Six or eight years ago, they were running about 15 freight trains a day through Spokane. Now it’s up to about 45.

 On the Expo land deal: A delegation of four Spokane people had an appointment with John Budd, chairman and chief executive of Burlington Northern. Budd said, “Bob, these people have a project going. You take care of them.” We had plans to move the old Great Northern operation off Havermale Island (in downtown Spokane). They asked for the land. The land would have sold for a lot of money, but the railroad thought this was something we could encourage, so we did a trade. The piers for the new bridge over Latah Creek had to be in High Bridge Park, and we also needed some land near Greenwood Cemetery. This trade enabled (Expo President) King Cole to go to the International Expositions people and say we have the space for Expo.

 In 1982, six years after I retired, my wife, Mary, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Taking care of Mary was my No. 1 job. I learned from the care-giving that you can’t feel sorry for yourself. We had nurse’s aides that came in, and I even learned to cook some. I still like to make a pie once in awhile.

 I agreed with the marriage vows from the start, and I still do. If she had lived two months longer, we would have been married 59 years.

 We should all just calm down. The stock market won’t come back automatically. But in most of the rest of the country, except in the housing industry, things are going along pretty well. You’d think the world is coming to an end mainly because in New York City, it is.