The world was a stage to Jon Downs. He spent his life thoroughly enjoying his fellow players, and the costume and set changes that came with the performance.
“His work and his travel gave him a chance to explore something new whenever he wanted,” said his daughter-in-law Mary Downs, of Columbia, S.C.
Jon Downs, who helped the former DeKalb College establish its drama and theater program, was not only a performer but he was also a playwright and a director, former students said.
“He was the most generous director,” said Neal Matthews, a former student who lives in Tucker. “He would give direction, but he would allow the actor to develop the character. He would give them the space to do that.”
Since his 1999 retirement from what is now Georgia Perimeter College, Downs has traveled extensively and enjoyed the productions of others, his son said.
“It would be easier to tell you where he hasn’t been,” said his son, Stephen Downs. “When he retired from teaching, he took up travel.”
Jon Franklin Downs, of Decatur, died Nov. 3 from complication of dementia. He was 75.
A memorial service is planned for 7 p.m. Monday at H.M. Patterson and Son, Spring Hill Chapel, which also handled cremation arrangements.
Downs was born in Bartow, Fla., but grew up in Georgia, his son said. He earned his undergraduate degree in 1958 from then-Georgia State College. He graduated from the University of Georgia with a master’s of Fine Arts in 1969, the same year he started working at DeKalb College.
Downs served as the director of the drama program for 30 years, where his students performed many of his original works.
For three years, Downs and a group of student toured Georgia, performing his historical dramas in state parks. The plays were about different parts of Georgia history, like his work Tokalitta, which was about the landing of James Edward Oglethorpe in Savannah, said Jennifer Jenkins, a former student and colleague of Downs.
“He really enjoyed improvisation,” Jenkins said. “He created a lot of his shows by having the students improve and going from there.”
Friends and family said Downs’s career included more than 200 productions where he served as director, a performer, or both. His impact reached far beyond those plays, Matthews said.
“He did this for 30 years,” the former student said. “When you start adding up the number of lives he touched, that is a lot of students. And I’m not even sure he was fully aware of how many of us thought so much of him.
Stephen Downs, who is an only child, said while he, his wife and three daughters, are his father’s only surviving blood relatives, there are many more people in the family.
“The theater community he worked with was a family, so he is survived by them too,” Downs said. “They will miss him as much as we will.”
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