January 23, 1953 - May 7, 2020
Kevin Downey, 67, of East Sandwich, died suddenly on Thursday, May 7, 2020. He was born to Edward and Mary Downey (Watson) on Jan. 23, 1953 in Norwood and grew up in the Islington section of Westwood.
Kevin attended Xaverian Brothers and Westwood High School. In 1974, he graduated from Providence College, where he ran track for the Friars. While studying in Rhode Island, he met the love of his life, MaryEllen Martens of New Haven (Providence ’76), whom he would go on to marry in 1979. For 38 years, their partnership was the bedrock of a growing family until her passing on Aug. 8, 2017 and remained so in the years since she departed. Kevin was at her side every day as she battled a prolonged illness.
While in college, he spent his junior year abroad in Switzerland. He regaled his family with stories of his travels with his classmates and friends, including a hitchhiking race to the French Riviera and a train ride behind lines in the eastern bloc.
He moved his family to rural New Jersey in 1983 shortly after he began a 31-year career as National Sales Manager for M&M Mars. He devoted himself to the candy business and, with his fastidious nature, meticulous approach and work ethic, he established himself as a force in the industry, eventually being honored and named to the Mars Tie & Scarf Club. When he retired from Mars, he enjoyed sharing stories about his days with the company and the many friends he made along the way. His family has been comforted in meaningful ways by these people important to his life in recent days.
He imparted on his children a love of Boston sports. While living in New Jersey, he became a Patriots season-ticket holder, long before doing so was a routinely rewarding pursuit. He loved the Red Sox and brought his family through thick and thin with the Bruins. He loved the old Boston Garden and planned to share the majesty of Fenway Park with his granddaughter, Grace. Deep down, he wished his kids loved the Celtics as much as he did.
In recent years, on Sundays, he visited the bench dedicated to MaryEllen’s memory in the Talbot Conservation lands with Bandit, the family dog, whom he loved.
Kevin was loved everywhere he went, including in the hockey communities of New England and the mid-Atlantic. His laugh is emblazoned in the memories of two generations of youth hockey players from Morristown to Mississauga and everywhere between, particularly how it echoed through the catacombs and rafters of impossibly cold rinks. A five-hour, same-night winter round trip to the Berkshires or Pomfret was standard procedure when it meant getting his kids’ skates sharpened by a friend on the Cape he trusted to do them just right. Later, the east-west trek from Brunswick to Middlebury was no match for his unending drive to watch his children play hockey. When the White and Green Mountains stood between him and the next game, he just went around them. Kevin and MaryEllen logged hundreds of thousands of miles on their Jeeps to see their kids play. In recent years, Kevin made trips to Europe to watch his son, Colin, play in the French Ligue Magnus.
Kevin’s reputation in the hockey world was a distinction earned over decades, partly because he was a student of the game, but mostly because everyone liked him and because he was there for the right reasons. He coached all of his kids and started the women’s program at Sandwich High School before women’s hockey was standard. Just recently, he had been certified to become a referee.
He was endlessly proud of his sons, daughter, daughter-in-law and his young granddaughter, all of whom survive him: Sean and his wife, Julie, and their daughter, Grace, of Washington, D.C.; Colin of Mulhouse, France; and Molly of Minneapolis. He is also survived by his sister, Jane Carter, and her husband, Joe Carter of Westwood.
A celebration of Kevin’s life will be announced at a later date.
COMPARTA UN OBITUARIO
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