Title	Mr.
Last Name	Downing
First Name	Herbert
Middle Name	P.
Maiden Name
Nick Name
Place of Birth	Ripley, ME
Date of Birth	1878-08-30
Place of Death	Bangor, ME
Date of Death	1958-11-03
Publication	The Eastern Gazette 11-6-1958, p.2
Obituary	Services Held For Herbert Downing Herbert P. Downing, 80, died Monday morning at a Bangor Hospital where he had been a patient for about a month. Funeral services were held Wednesday afternoon at the Crosby Funeral Home with the Rev. Howard Benson of the Methodist Church officiating Bearers were the following members of the Masonic order: Floyd Hammond, Linwood Seavey, Charles Coy, Clyde Mower. Burial was in the family lot at Mt. Pleasant Cemetery. Born August 30, 1878 at Ripley, Mr. Downing was the son of Charles A. and Gusta Ricker Downing. Educated in Ripley Schools and a member of the class of '06 at the U. of M., he left college in the spring of his senior year and went to Zeigler, Ill., where he worked as a machinst in the coal mines. III health forced him to return to the east where he went to work for the General Electric Co. at Lynn, Mass., in the turbine research department. He married Martha Marsh of Orono and they lived in Lynn for some nine years. He then went to Boston where he worked as an automobile mechanic, returning to Dexter and starting a garage with Ernest C. Farrar on the site of the present Whitney Garage on Church st. Later, Mr. Downing went into the garage business for himself on Grove st. where he remained for about 10 years. After selling that business, he went into the Fay and Scott Machine Shop and while there became superintendent of the Dexter Water Works, a position which he held for nine years. He worked for a time as a guard at the Fay and Scott shop before retiring in 1947. Since his retirement he had done some extensive gardening until ill health forced him to give up that activity. A member of Penobscot Lodge, A. F. & A. M., he had served as it Master and also as patron and associate patron of Wassookeag Chapter, 0. E. S. He is survived by his wife, Martha; one son, Herbert J. Downing; two brothers, Charles S. Downing of Ripley and Roscoe of St. Albans.