Community leader Bill Dowdy possesses a lifelong love of volunteering and service to McKinney on various boards

By Brandi Hart
McKinneyUpdate.com
Created at 11:38 p.m. on Aug. 2, 2009

Few people in McKinney possess the historic scope of how the city has changed over the last decades while continually helping to add to that change while embodying the essence of integrity and solely focused on helping the community.

Bill Dowdy is just one such person whose love of McKinney and community service continues at the age of 84, as he has served the community he was born in for decades on various boards, from the McKinney Economic Development Corporation, McKinney Armed Services Board, to volunteering at the Community Food Pantry.

The World War II veteran is the son of the late William Dowdy, Sr., a former district judge who presided over cases in Collin and Grayson counties for more than 20 years in the Historic Collin County Courthouse on the McKinney square. Dowdy followed in his father's footsteps, to a degree, as he worked as an attorney.

After graduating from McKinney High School, Dowdy attended North Texas Agriculture College (which is now the University of Texas at Arlington).  His education was interrupted when he was called to military service during WW II.  As an artillery forward observer with the 24th Division in the Philippines, he served at Leyte, Luzon, Bataan, Mindoro, and Mindanao.  Later he was with the occupation army in Japan.

Upon receiving his honorable discharge from the military, Dowdy resumed his education at the University of Texas at Austin where he received his bachelors in business administration degree and law degree. He was authorized to practice law in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He was able to attend law school due to the GI Bill and having a working wife, he said. He married Ann Atkinson in 1947, and his wife's family, like his own are also from the McKinney and Collin County area. Ann grew up in an area that is now part of McKinney but used to be called the Foote community where the St. Gabriel Catholic Church is now located.

Growing up as the son of a judge Dowdy was always exposed to the law. Being the son of a judge was very interesting because he got to hear stories about criminals and cases from his father, who passed away in 1985, Dowdy said. More interesting are the stories he hears now about his late father when he was a judge, Dowdy said.

"One of the most recent ones I heard, and is one of my favorites is that a guy plead guilty to murder and my dad sentenced him, and gave him 75 years in the penitentiary. The guy said, 'Judge I'll never live that long', and my dad said, 'Well, do the best you can.' I thought well that sounds like my comforting father. It was funny to everybody but the guy who received the sentence," Dowdy said.

Dowdy pursued a career in law because he grew up around it, and one of his biggest influences was Judge Tom Suggs, who worked as district judge over Collin and Grayson counties prior to Dowdy's father serving as District judge for Collin and Grayson counties. Dowdy remembers delivering the newspaper, The McKinney Courier-Gazette, as a teenager in town and also to former Judge Suggs when he was on the bench, and Judge Suggs told Dowdy to walk straight up to him to deliver the paper, and would give him his firsthand take on the cases being tried before him, Dowdy said .

"The first day I went up there he said, 'Son, anytime you come in here I don't care what's going on you bring the paper to me.' Well of course that just thrilled me to death. He in so many words told me that he wanted me to come into that courtroom like I owned it, and so I did that. So anytime there would be a murder case going on he'd read the paper and would still be able to listen to what was going on in the courtroom. He'd make rulings while he was reading the Courier-Gazette. I would sit in the clerk's chair right by the judge, and he'd like to do that when my dad was trying a case, and he say, 'Watch your old man and see what he does wrong.'," Dowdy said.

"Judge Suggs is the one that convinced me that sure enough that's what I wanted to do. He was an excellent lawyer and excellent judge, and he later became my boss. He gave me the kind of treatment that a young kid in high school was just swept off of his feet and took me under his wing," Dowdy said.

Dowdy first worked as an attorney in the office of Henry Wade, the former District Attorney in Dallas County, where Dowdy prosecuted cases in Dallas County Courts, served as grand jury advisor, and was chief felony prosecutor in Criminal District Court No. 2. He worked in Dallas so he or his father wouldn't have to recluse themselves from hearing a case or prosecuting a case, Dowdy said.

"I helped put the bad guys away for about four years and Henry had an excellent reputation in spite of Wade," Dowdy said.

Judge Suggs scouted Dowdy out when he was a prosecuting attorney and called him one day to work as an attorney for the Texas & Pacific Railway Company in Dallas, and was later named general attorney.  He continued in that capacity following the merger of the Texas & Pacific Railway with the Missouri Pacific Railroad.  With the merger of Missouri Pacific and Union Pacific he was appointed to the position of general solicitor for Union Pacific, with headquarters in Dallas.  Later he was named senior counsel, and retired in that position in 1987.

Dowdy and his wife moved to McKinney in 1988 and restored his parents' home located in the Historic District. Since he moved back to McKinney Dowdy has been active in civic affairs. He served on the McKinney Historic Preservation Advisory Board from 1989 to1995, and was the chairman of the board for the last two years. He has been active in the Heritage Guild of Collin County, and currently serving on its Advisory Board.  He is also Chairman of the McKinney Alliance Board, past president of the Community Concert Association, past president of the Kiwanis Club of McKinney, past board member of the American Red Cross, a volunteer in the Community Food Pantry in McKinney, and a volunteer of the McKinney Education Foundation. 

He was a member of the MEDC Board of Directors from 1994 to 2003 and MEDC Chairman from June 1997 to September 2003. The MEDC board room is named after him. Former Mayor John Gay recruited him to be on the MEDC and called him to ask if he wanted to serve on the MEDC,and the next day he was appointed to the board, which is different to how folks are appointed to the city boards and commissions these days.

"I always considered that a great, minor explosion in McKinney politics and nowadays they have these receptions, you have to fill out these forms, and get on bended knee apparently and talk to somebody and all that stuff. I always thought that was a bunch of malarkey. My attitude on that was that if the city wants me to serve on something then I'm glad to do it, but I'm not going around to ask people to put me on a board. I figured if I'm worthy then I'll be appointed," Dowdy said.

When he moved back to McKinney the population was about 21,000 and by the time he resigned from the MEF the population was about 120,000, and because of the growing population he felt the city and school district boards and commissions need to have new blood on them.

"Golly I thought if we have that many people here then we need to give other people a shot at some of these jobs. Without naming names or getting personal we've got people who can't turn loose of some of those jobs, seemingly," Dowdy said.

MEDC President and CEO David Pitstick was hired by Dowdy to head the MEDC. Pitstick said that Dowdy's opinions were always strongly considered and respected on the MEDC board, and that he always represented McKinney well in that he voted on incentives and items that would benefit McKinney as he always had the best interest for McKinney and its residents.

Former MEDC board member Mac Hendricks, whom Dowdy worked with on the MEDC board, greatly admires Dowdy and said that most everything he's learned he's learned from Bill Dowdy.

"Most everything I learned I learned from Bill Dowdy. I learned about integrity. He personifies integrity. Never once did I ever have reason to question his motives or any hidden agenda. McKinney is really the better for that fact that Bill Dowdy came back home. He's my hero, he's my mentor and if I wanted to point to someone to my grandchildren to be like it would be Bill Dowdy. When it comes to integrity, community and public service, and business dealings he is the best," Hendricks said.

Dowdy in turn also described Hendricks as being a great asset to the MEDC board as he was "a straight arrow and could always sniff out a bad deal," Dowdy said.

Durinda Fisher, Administrative Assistant for the MEDC who has worked in the office since it first opened, said that Dowdy's commitment to the community is apparent through his service on various boards, and he is one of the most well respected members of the MEDC.

Former MEDC Board Chairman and board member Ray Ricchi, who replaced Hendricks on the MEDC board, said that Dowdy represents class, much as Gerry Ruschhaupt, the owner of McKinney Office Supply and helped created the McKinney Community Development Corp., in McKinney.

"Bill Dowdy is probably the epitome of the optimal citizen of McKinney. I think he and Mrs. Ruschhaupt are class. During the first time I was on the MEDC I learned the history of McKinney and the EDC from Mr. Dowdy. He's probably had the most influence on the way I think and how I approach the city's perspective. He and his wife, Ann are truly living legends of McKinney and they are first class people," Ricchi said. "I have never heard a sideways word about either of them."

Mayor Brian Loughmiller said while he has not worked a lot with Dowdy, but that he is greatly respected both through the city and the legal community. 

"He has always been a gentleman with a helping hand on issues and words of encouragement," Loughmiller said.

Dowdy's other service to the community includes watching over the Pecan Grove Cemetery. He has been a member of the Pecan Grove Cemetery Association's Board of Directors, and always attends the annual Memorial Day celebration at the cemetery. He also served on the McKinney Armed Services Committee, which was previously called the McKinney Veterans Memorial Committee, but he stepped down from that committee this year after he had back surgery. He is recuperating and has also taken some time off from serving on so many boards to heal. He is now walking with a cane, but that isn't slowing him down at all as he still makes each Kiwanis Club luncheon and is active in several groups.

He continues to be a member of the McKinney Alliance, which is a non-profit group made up of various residents. He is a lifetime member of the Trinity Presbyterian Church, where is an a church elder. Dowdy has spoke to the McKinney Building and Standards Committee about the important of the city not demolishing the former church building that sits at the southwest corner of Davis and Church streets after the issue of the safety of the building was brought to the city's attention in 2008.

He has served on the boards and likes McKinney because it's home, his family has a long history here, his father was born and grew up in the McKinney area and his mother also grew up in the area, and taught school at Greer Elementary School, which is where the former ACT Academy was located, and the school was also called Northward.

Dowdy is member of the UT Ex-Students Association, and holds memberships in Phi Alpha Delta Law and Kappa Sigma Fraternities.  Additionally, he is a member of the Collin County Bar Association, Dallas Bar Association and Texas Bar Association.  He is also a former member of the Executive Committee of the National Association of Railroad Trial Counsel and was Southwestern Regional Vice President of that organization from 1977 to 1981. He has also won the McKinney Chamber of Commerce's Citizen of the Year award, and is a former member of the Chamber's Executive Board.

The Dowdys have three children: Trey, or William C. Dowdy III, and his nickname was Trey as he was the third William C. Dowdy, who works as an attorney in Dallas; Jill Dowdy, who is a school teacher in Dallas; and Dan Dowdy, who has a masters in business administration and runs a urologist's doctors' group in Amarillo.

Back to home page