Jay Downer (1877-1949) received the Pugsley Bronze Medal in 1949. He was born in Muscatine, Iowa and graduated from Princeton University in 1905 with a degree in civil engineering. He gained experience with the Cape Breton Railroad Company in Nova Scotia; with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the upper Mississippi River and with the Aluminium Company of America in Massena, New York before moving to Westchester County to become cheif engineer of the Bronx Parkway Commission from 1912 to 1923. The Bronx Parkway Commission was established in 1906.
The Bronx River flowed through Westchester County and the Borough of the Bronx, forming the northerly portion of New York City.
The work of building the Bronx River Parkway and laying out the parkway reservation was Jay Downer's responsibility.
The pollution clean-up was so successful that swimming was possible in the summer of 1918 in a river that in 1909 was so polluted that swimming would have been considered a disservice to mankind.
During the World War I the project was in abeyance and Downer left Westchester County to serve as a civilian in the aircraft procurement division of the War Department as a "Dollar-a-aYear Man".
The Bronx Parkway project resumed after the war when Downer returned to completion in 1923.
When the road was completed the Commission disbanded. The outstanding work done by Downer in transforming the ugly Bronx Valley into an attractive landscaped arterial connected to the Croton Aqueduct, with a system of parkways modeled after the older, more mature parkways of the country. Thus, Downer was retained as chief engineer of the Bronx Parkway Commission when it was formed in 1907, with the task of further developing this idea to meet the public's perceptions. Instead of being viewed as threats to the environment, parkways were seen as devices for rehabilitating urban sites, preventing relatively unspoiled regions from degenerating into carbon deposits and garbage dump sites.
In his 22 years in Westchester, Downer had overseen the investment of $50 million of public money on parks and parkways. Downer was an inspiring leader and a man of impeccable character and integrity. He received many honors, among them the honorary degree of Doctor of Science from Columbia University in 1931.