Dr. Monroe Davis Dowling Jr.

Dr. Monroe D. Dowling Jr. Passed from this world into God's loving hands on July 31st 2023, at 2:23 am. He was predeceased by his parents Monroe Davis Dowling and Helen Robin Dowling. He is survived by his loving wife of 45 years, Judith Ann Dowling, and two children, Carla Rose and husband Ralph Dowling-Fitzpatrick with grandchildren Joshua William Fitzpatrick, Rebecca Rose Dowling-Fitzpatrick and Zachary Monroe Dowling-Fitzpatrick, and Monroe Davis Dowling III and grandchild, Monroe Davis Dowling IV, “Q” for “Quatro”.

Monroe Davis Dowling Jr. was born on a very cold winter day on February 23rd, 1934. He was the son of Monroe D. Dowling, and Helen J Dowling. Monroe D. Dowling senior was a graduate of Harvard Business School, notably among the very first African Americans to graduate from HBS and ultimately held the position of Tax collector of New York City. Monroe Jr.’s first memory of church came from the Reverend Shelton Hale Bishop Rector of Saint Phillips Episcopal church in New York City. Reverend Bishop was very stern and as a boy Monroe believed he was God and knew that he was to behave. He behaved at all costs. Saint Philip's church of New York City was beautiful. A place at which he attended elementary school, joined the choir, was an acolyte, and confirmed. He always looked to Saint Phillips as his church home and where his knowledge base of religion began as a boy. He remained a faithful member of Saint Philip's church until 1976 when he left New York.

During his schooling after middle school at Horace Mann Lincoln in New York, he attended Phillips Exeter Academy, graduating in 1952. Thereafter he graduated from Harvard University and majored in organic and minored in inorganic chemistry graduating in 1956. He attended medical school at Howard University College of Medicine in Washington D.C., graduating in 1960. His desire to study medicine began at a time when he was in the hospital as a youngster for an eye surgery, for strabismus. At that time he had a roommate, in his hospital room, a small child that was his age about four years old who passed away of acute leukemia. As a result, Monroe developed a desire and calling to help children afflicted with acute leukemia.

His vocation would grow around his love of medicine which took over his life. He loved the study of cancer and the research field which led to his direction in life. Oncology was a field where research and the clinical practice of medicine joined on a daily basis. Little did he realize that the next 50 to 60 years of his life would be devoted to this work and its study. As the chief of hematology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and in private practice thereafter in states around the country and with patents around the world, he helped extend the lives of many, and in a number of cases with God's help, cured and or placed in remission those diagnosed with cancer.

Memorial Services shall take place on Saturday August 19,2023 at two o’clock in the afternoon, at Saint John’s Episcopal Church in Worthington, 700 High St. Worthington Oh. 43085. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the American Cancer society.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.neptunesociety.com/location/columbus-cremation for the Dowling Jr. family.