Walter F. Downey (January 8, 1899 - January 13, 1961) was an athlete, WWI and WWII veteran and prominent civil servant.
Downey was born into a poor, working-class, Irish-American household in Dorchester, Massachusetts on January 8, 1899. At a young age, Downey showed his athletic prowess in both track and field as well as football. After service as an enlisted man in the US Navy during WWI (stateside), Downey attended Boston College on a full athletic scholarship (he was a sprinter and quarterback), only to have that scholarship taken away from him after breaking a leg. In 1920, Downey, an alternate sprinter, was a member of the US Olympic Team at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. Upon return to the United States, Downey attended and later graduated from Fordham University (Class of 1922), where he was a member of the track and field team, as well as the football team, where he stood out as a star quarterback. Upon graduating from Fordham, Downey played professional football for several seasons, as a quarterback with teams such as the Hartford Blues and the New York Giants.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Downey worked as a Special Agent for the US Government, and traveled throughout the Midwestern US investigating banks. At the outbreak of WWII, while living in New York, Downey was given a commission as a 2nd Lt. in the US Naval Reserve, served stateside and finished the war as a Lt. Cmdr. After the War, Downey headed the US War Assets Commission, which was based in New York and was later made Regional Head of the General Services Administration (GSA), a post which he held until his death. Downey retired from the Naval Reserve as a Cmdr. and is buried in Fort Snelling National Cemetery, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Downey was survived by his wife Eldyn (Tinnesand) (died 1985), daughter Barbara Anne Bigley (died 1986) and son Patrick Cole Downey (died 1987).