We knew him as Bluffton College's most famous dropout. Then Bluffton College president, Robert Kreider, termed that phrase of Hugh Downs, who attended Bluffton College in the late 1930s.
Later he earned an honorary doctorate degree from Bluffton and was known as one of Bluffton’s “three D’s” – Downs, Phyllis Diller and Elbert Dubenion.
The Lima native’s stay in Bluffton was brief, but certain is important in the character building of what a New York Times writer wrote: “Hugh Downs, whose honeyed delivery and low-key but erudite manner helped make him a familiar face and voice on television for half a century, and whose career included long stints as host of both “Today” on NBC and “20/20” on ABC.
Downs, who last visited Bluffton in the 1990s during a Bluffton College benefit, died on July 1, 2020, in his Scottsdale, Arizona, home at age 99.
In addition to the Today Show and 20/20, Downs served as host for a brief stint of The Tonight Show.
Born in Akron, Ohio, on Feb. 14, 1921, the son of Milton and Edith (Hick) Downs, his family moved to Lima, where he graduated from Shawnee High School. His enrollment to Bluffton was because of a scholarship he received.
Downs married Ruth Shaheen in 1944; she died in 2017. He is survived by their children, Hugh Raymond and Deirdre Lynn Downs; a brother, Wallace; two grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
