William David Downs Professor at OBU was a man of faith

William David Downs had many titles — husband, father, teacher, traveler, author, Uncle Bill — but those who knew him said one descriptor suited him best: Saved.

Downs, a communications professor at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia for more than 40 years and a 16-year commissioner for the Arkansas Educational Television Network, died early Saturday in Calico Rock.

“It could be a bad time, but since we believe like we believe, it’s not,” said Steven Lambert, Downs’ son-in-law. “Bill’s faith was a big part of his life, and his faith was contagious.”

Family members and friends said the professor had a knack for teaching not just his subject matter, but in his home life, too.

“He was so happy to share not only his thoughts but his faith,” Lambert said.

Sharon Downs, the professor’s daughter-in-law, said Downs taught Sunday School lessons at First Baptist Church Arkadelphia for decades.

In the classroom, Downs said, her father-in-law was tough and challenging, but also an incredible mentor.

“So many people have reached out to me this week without prompting,” Sharon Downs said. “So many of his students have said, ‘I have never been more challenged in a class, but I have never learned more.’”

She said the first time she met her father-in-law in 1987, he asked her a peculiar question.

“Not ‘hey, how are you?’ but ‘what’s your five-year plan?’” Downs said, laughing. At the time, the 19-yearold Sharon Downs had no intention of attending college. Now, as the vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, she said her career trajectory can be traced back in part to that question.

“The amount that he influenced my life I cannot overstate,” she said.

Deborah Root vouched for the challenging nature of Downs’ classroom. She was his student in 1977 before becoming his friend and colleague at Ouachita Baptist University.

“It was really interesting because he was very, very tough on his students,” Root said. “But Dr. Downs loved his students dearly, and they loved him.”

Root became chairman of the school’s Rogers Department of Communications after Downs retired and said he was still a mentor to her even 30 years after they met.

“We just cherish him, and he taught us so much about journalism and teaching,” Root said of her and her husband, Jeff Root, dean of the university’s School of Humanities.

Outside the classroom, Sharon Downs said, the educator was skilled at photography and woodcarving, and traveled the world twice with his wife, Vera.

Perhaps more than anything, Downs’ stepdaughter Tammy Lambert said, he loved his family.

On Friday, Tammy and Steven Lambert took his wife to see him one last time.

“Everybody kept saying he was hanging on, and I think he was waiting to see her,” Tammy Lambert said.