“Bombs away! Police take terror out of a briefcase,” was the headline in the April 1986 story by United Press International published in the Chicago Tribune.
Downs, then a Duluth city councilor, had left his briefcase parked next to the Civil War monument across from City Hall while he went across the street to dinner. The Duluth Police Department took a phone call about the suspicious circumstances of the abandoned carryall and brought in the bomb squad — which reportedly blew it up, including his notes for the evening’s City Council meeting.
“Boy did they blast it to pieces,” Downs later told a reporter.
“That story made Paul Harvey,” Patty Salo Downs said this week in a conversation about her late father-in-law, referencing the former radio news program with a broad national listenership.
Downs, described as a family man, a spreader of joy and humor, a person passionate about people and Duluth, with an eye on West Duluth, died Monday at age 93. As of this past summer, he and Barbara Downs were married 69 years. They had two sons, George and Peter, which led to three grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren, according to his obituary.
Downs retired from a career spent mostly with Missabe and Iron Range Railway when he was in his mid-50s, and then switched to politics, serving roles on Duluth’s School Board and later City Council.
It suited him.
“He is the epitome of what I wish every politician nowadays would be,” said Gary Doty, who was Duluth’s mayor from 1992-2004. “He was kind, he was gentle, he knew what he wanted and he knew the best way to get it was to work with people and be kind to people.”
OBITUARY: M. George Downs
Downs’ obituary lists loads of activities and accomplishments ranging from improvements to Morgan Park School, his role as an original member of the Duluth Economic Development Authority, support for Interstate 35 expansion, the addition of Amsoil Arena, and the rebuilding of Public Schools Stadium.
“That’s George,” Doty recalled thinking as he read the list.
Former mayor Don Ness recalled Downs as having a “twinkle in his eye, a warm personality, and always promoting some big, transformational idea.”
“He probably pitched me on the idea of a local payroll tax a half-dozen times, always with a smile on his face and never deterred by my objections,” Ness said. “He and I were often on opposite sides of campaigns and local issues, but never once did that ever get in the way of our friendship and respect for one another. For M. George, it was relationships and his love of community that always came first — win or lose, agreement or disagreement, his kindness and that twinkle in his eye was always there.”
Salo Downs remembered Downs giving people a specially designated quarter — a means of contact in a time of landlines and telephone booths.
“If you need something, call me,” she remembered him saying. “He’d tell us, if you need anything, let me know. You could count on him to be there.”
Salo Downs was working for Minnesota Power when she met him. Downs was building a garage and needed a power source. While she was consulting with him in his backyard, he kept referencing his son George, a “really good kid” who had recently bought the place next door.
“Somehow he was serving as a matchmaker,” Salo Downs said.
She ended up marrying the son.
Downs was part of a crew that included the late businessman Charlie Bell that would meet in the mornings at West Duluth Perkins, snag a corner table, and “talk about how they’re going to get things done for West Duluth,” Doty said.
M. George Downs talks with Amy Wiedman, executive director for the Lake Superior Center, at a corner table in the West Duluth Perkins. Downs, who often used the table as his “office,” died Monday.
Dave Ballard / 1996 file / Duluth News Tribune
In 2011, Downs reportedly asked then-Sen. Roger Reinert, DFL-Duluth, to pitch the site of U.S. Steel as a potential stadium for the Minnesota Vikings, and got a response from the team’s vice president for stadium development.
“Back in the ’40s and ’50s, we used to have the Green Bay Packers come to Public Schools Stadium and have a practice there,” Downs told a News Tribune columnist at the time. “We had so many people that we had to put in extra bleachers all the way around.”
His younger brother, John Downs, described the Downs siblings — which included eight children — as an extremely close-knit group. For decades they met at a restaurant on Saturday morning for a family breakfast that grew to eventually include nieces and nephews, sometimes passers-by. There was also an annual post-Thanksgiving breakfast hosted by Downs that marked the start of the holiday season for the family.
“He was a wonderful brother,” John Downs said. “Over the years he was very helpful to me. He gave me an incredible amount of encouragement. I love him a lot.”
M. George Downs valued his family, his community and Asbury United Methodist Church — where he once submitted a recipe for a peanut butter toast to the church cookbook, according to Salo Downs.
His family honored his commitment to the church with the timing of his funeral, which is 1 p.m. Oct. 11 at 6822 Grand Ave. They didn’t want to interfere with the baking of apple pies on Friday and Saturday for the church’s Fall Pantry event next weekend. It’s also available for streaming on its YouTube channel.
“It’s a loss for so many people,” Doty said. “He did so much for so many people. If anything else, he made people feel cared for. He made people feel loved.”
