Saturday, September 20, 2025
To Bonnie and your family ~
I am so sorry for your loss and to hear of John's passing so late after he'd gone home to our Lord. I had the privilege of working with John on Laserfilm at McDonnell Douglas in St. Charles. He taught me so much! He was equally generous with his time, knowledge (which was considerable), and his encouragement to me, a young and cocky engineer.
There are few engineering influences I can look back on with great gratitude and affection for their tutelage and friendship. John is one of those greats. Because of him sharing his passion for analog circuit design and analog video with me so generously, I have enjoyed a wonderful career in electronics with several video projects along the way. I have a Laserfilm LFS-4400 and a disk signed by John which he, and the team, gave me as a memento in the summer of 1985.
If you should ever want to hear more about our time together on Laserfilm, please don't hesitate to reach out. I miss him very much.
peace,
Phil Downen
