John Michael Downey was born September 12, 1958, in El Paso, Texas. Of Col. John James Downey and Mrs. Ella Henrietta Downey’s six children, he was the second-youngest and the only boy. He attended Hillside Elementary and then Cathedral High School, graduating in 1976.
A lifelong artist, John Michael painted the mural seen to this day in El Paso’s Union Depot train station and collaborated with Barbara Montoya on projects involving her late husband’s work. He served the University of Texas at El Paso in graphic design for 31 years, lending beauty and distinction to innumerable books, magazines, and other publications along with the most recent floor of the Don Haskins Center athletic arena.
John Michael loved the El Paso community, where he never met a stranger and was equally happy gathering to revel with family and friends or tinkering around his Sunset Heights home. His penchants for history, costumes, and festivals took him from Old West reenactments (some comedic and many staged by Leon Metz) to Renaissance fairs and backyard pirate banquets.
On October 14, 2020, John Michael was taken by cancer from his wife Melissa Downey; daughters Lea Downey Gallatin (34) and Mirella Downey (12); sisters Jane Burr, Kathleen Downey, Patricia Lunn, Aileen Czolgosz, and Mary Ella Swan; brothers-in-law Verner Dobler, Robert Lunn, Philip Czolgosz, and Michael Swan; son-in-law Russell and granddaughters Mia (6) and Miley (4), and countless beloved cousins, nieces, nephews, friends, and colleagues.
John Michael took comfort in his Catholic faith and in the role of adoring father that he said made him immortal. His unforgettable presence is El Paso’s great loss.
