Mr Evan James Downing, BPharm, FRPharmS, FCIS, of 24 Forde Park, Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 1DD, died suddenly on December 28, 1999. He was for many years assistant secretary of the National Pharmaceutical Association, with responsibility for its training programme.
Mr Downing registered as a pharmacist in 1954. He joined the staff of the then National Pharmaceutical Union in 1957 and over the next 33 years was to become involved with almost all aspects of NPA work. His first job was that of information department superintendent and he then added publication of the Pink Supplement to his responsibilities. He was the initiator of the NPA business aids service and later helped develop the shopfitting service. From 1960 he concentrated on training facilities, and in 1962 he was appointed secretary of the Pharmacy Assistants Training Board. He was also promoted to assistant secretary of the NPA. He retired from the NPA in 1990.
Mr Downing was elected a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries in 1970. He was designated a fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society in 1978 for distinction in the profession of pharmacy.
Mr JOSEPH WRIGHT (former director, NPA Group) writes: Jim Downing joined the staff at Mallinson House in 1957 and at first was superintendent of the information department. During his spare time he studied and was elected, in 1959, a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries. He took over responsibility for the business aids section until John Goulding joined the staff after the move of the office to Southgate. It was there that Jim was able to spend part of his lunchtime at the baths just a few yards from the office in Southgate Circus swimming with weights round his waist! Other staff members were impressed particularly when they learnt that he was a recognised scuba diving instructor.
The move to Southgate highlighted Jim's capacity for dealing effectively and thoroughly with a mass of detail. Within a few days after the move the entire office was back to its efficient working, thanks to careful planning by Jim and his team and the colour coded labels that were attached to everything in each of the office departments. That ability was also most useful when he worked with Tim Astill in preparing guidance for NPA members before decimalisation of the currency and the introduction of value added tax.
During the year before I retired in 1981, Jim played a major part with Tim Astill in preparing for the introduction of computers throughout Mallinson House. The changeover, I understand, was quite smooth, no doubt because of the painstaking attention to detail that Jim and Tim and the heads of departments had paid in the forward planning.
It was in training of pharmacy staff that Jim played a major part. He was appointed secretary of the Pharmacy Assistants Training Board when that body was set up. Later he served on the Pharmaceutical Society's Audio-Visual Aids Committee and on a working party set up by the training subcommittee of the National Economic Development Committee for the Distributive Trades. That working party considered the problems of training in small shops and found Jim's experience and guidance invaluable.
Jim retired in 1990 after serving as assistant secretary of the NPA for a major part of his 33 years at the office. He had not been well for some time before he died.
Our thoughts and those of the NPA board, the staff at Mallinson House and of the many members throughout the country who knew Jim, are with his wife, Ruth, and their family at this sad time.
Memorial service Friday, January 7, Newton Abbot, Devon. Details from Co-operative Funeral Service, Albany Street, Newton Abbot (tel 01626 362220).