Pitre OL See AULD UL BIO Ng BU Lilek TIN 21 
LY, Ves iseicewi: 
PAUL DOWNING 
A few words scrawled on an appli- 
cation to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service by William I. Lyon, then 
dean of bird banders, signaled the 
beginning of a bird banding ca- 
reer that spanned over 40 years. 
Those words were: ‘‘He’s one hell 
of a nice person. Give him a per- 
mit.” One September 19, 1974, that 
career ended with the death of 
Paul Downing, age 77, in Highland 
Park, Illinois. 
Taking chimney swifts as his 
banding project, Paul and his wife, 
Eleanor banded some 30,000 birds 
over the years. One of very few 
people in the U.S. to work with 
swifts, Paul even had to invent his 
own method of trapping the birds 
in their chimneys. The discovery of 
one of Paul’s banded swifts in 
Peru established the heretofore 
unknown migratory pattern of the 
chimney swift. After completing a 
suitable banding apprenticeship 
with William I. Lyon who then 
lived in Waukegan, Paul and El- 
eanor became active in the Inland 
Bird Banding Association. Later 
Paul contacted Washington to lo- 
cate area banders, invited them to 
his home one weekend, and subsc- 
quently founded the William I. 
Lyon Bird Banding Council em- 
bracing the Wisconsin, Illinois, In- 
diana, and Iowa territory. 
This year a young Lake-Cook 
member, Jim Neal, began appren- 
ticing with the Downings to be- 
come a bander. In a recent visit 
with Eleanor, we learned of her 
hope that Jim and his wife, Jane 
can eventually perpetuate’ the 
chimney swift project begun so 
long ago by the Downings. 
We in the Illinois Audubon So- 
ciety pay tribute to Paul for all 
the time, effort, and thought he put 
into our organization through the 
years. He was President of the 
IAS for nine years, Acting Presi- 
dent for one year, and lst Vice 
President for three years; most re- 
cently he was Co-treasurer of the 
Lake-Cook Chapter. Paul helped 
to make IAS go and grow. It was 
he who agitated for the chapter 
system in the IAS. and _subse- 
quently founded the Lake-Cook 
Chapter. It was also Paul who be- 
gan the tradition of annual meet- 
ings held in the spring for all 
IAS members and established the 
IAS bookstore now located in 
Downers Grove. 
In gratitude to the Downings, 
the Lake-Cook Chapter has recent- 
ly established the nucleus of a 
fund for the Paul and Eleanor 
Downing Library to be located in 
the new IAS Sanctuary. Current- 
ly all proceeds from Lake-Cook 
Chapter book sales are placed in 
the fund which totals approximat- 
ely $250 at this time. If single 
members and friends of IAS or 
chapters want to contribute to the 
fund in memory of Paul, checks 
can be sent to the IAS office in 
Downers Grove and designated for 
the Downing Library. 
Paul Downing was both a gen- 
tleman and a gentle man. We'll 
miss seeing him at lLake-Cook 
meetings bearing a small cage with 
some bird for us to hold and ad- 
mire. The kids in Highland Park 
will miss him as a crossing guard 
this year. We imagine that even 
those raucous grackles he banded 
in his yard each year will note his 
absence. Paul was one of a vanish- 
ing breed that remained “one hell 
of a nice person” to the end. 
Lake-Cook Chapter 
Judith Juers 
