Jeanne Dowd will be missed by many    September 25, 1998 Downey Eagle
DOWNEY-Funeral services for Jeanne Claire Dowd, who began with a brownie camera and talent for writing and advanced to an international career as an educator and video/film producer, were held Thursday at the Hillside Chapel of Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier.
She was 77, born Sept. 10, 1921, in Huntington Park. During her early years she contributed photos and a teen-oriented column on oceanographic subjects for Skin Diver magazine.
She was a member of Tri Delta Sorority.
Later, as a reading/learning specialist for more than 30 years with the Los Angeles Unified School District, she applied her bachelor's degree in English and a history minor from USC, and a master's from CSU-Los Angeles.
She retired from the LAUSD and journeyed to Singapore with her husband, where she worked for 13 years, teaching K-8 children at the Singapore American School while handling E.S.L. classes besides.
She later taught similar classes in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. For four years she dovetailed her work with that of her husband, Ed, which dictated heavy travel for his New York-based insurance brokerage firm, Johnson and Higgins.
She once pointed out with pride that she was responsible for the education of more than 1,300 children representing 38 nations over a span of 17 years.
She also worked with husband Ed to do audit work from 1987, not only in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim, but in Stockholm, London, Barcelona, South Africa, South America, and finally Australia and New Zealand.
They lived in Sydney where Ed was a consultant to the state government. When she was hit by a respiratory disorder, she returned to Downey three years ago to pursue a new career as film and video program producer, founding "edj Media Services" at 7409 Arnett St.
While Ed spent much of his time at his job in Australia, they were in constant touch on the Internet.
She subsequently produced two series of 14 half-hour programs for Rockwell Space Camp, some of which aired on Channel 28, while also filming significant S & T projects in local schools for educational use.
She also taught a video and film production class at the Downey Adult School. It was through this that she met William "Walking Willie" Croker and co-sponsored his 4,000-mile walk of the Great Wall of China, which was linked the the World Wide Web as an electronic schoolhouse for children.
She later founded the Aerospace Legacy Foundation and lobbied tirelessly to preserve Downey's aerospace heritage through the establishment of an aerospace museum/academy/theme park on the excess NASA land.
She hosted the neighborhood children, allowing them to use her computers, and spent hours tutoring them in math, reading and language. She gave of herself so unstintingly that many were unaware of her disability.
She was preceded in death by her son, Edmond Mike Dowd, who died in an auto accident in 1962.
Survivors include her husband, Edmond John Dowd.