Dr. John Dowling, ex-Nassau health chief, dies

Dr. John J. Dowling, former Nassau County health commissioner who in the late 1980s helped launch one of the first modern smoking bans in the country, died Monday of complications from pneumonia. He was 90.

Dowling joined the county health department in 1962 as an epidemiologist. Two years later, he received a master's degree in public health from Columbia University. In 1972, he was appointed commissioner, a post he held for 17 years.

During his tenure, the department expanded its public services, including creating a county emergency medical services council and setting up health clinics in medically underserved communities.

Dowling was arguably best known for persuading the county's Board of Health to require smoke-free sections in restaurants and bars -- a widely unpopular move -- more than a decade before New York City outlawed smoking in bars and nightclubs.

"He stuck to his guns and the board backed him," said Martin Dawson, 90, former deputy commissioner for administration under Dowling. "That was the first step in government getting into the anti-smoking business."

Dowling was born and raised in Pringle, Pa. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where he also attended medical school, graduating in 1947.

From 1950-1952, during the Korean War, he served as an Army surgeon with the 8076th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, or M.A.S.H.

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When he returned to the United States he began private practice as a general internist in Syosset, where he had lived and worked since 1959.

He also was a professor of medicine at Stony Brook University from 1973 to 1990.

In retirement, Dowling remained active in several health-related issues. He held leadership positions in various groups, including the Visiting Nurse Services of Long Island; Hospice Care Network; HIV Commission of Nassau County; Health and Welfare Council, and the American Cancer Society.

"He didn't get into golf or fishing or anything. Even in retirement, he still pursued public health because it wasn't just a professional career, it was a personal commitment," said his son, Dennis Dowling of Huntington, an executive director of ambulatory care services for the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System.

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Dowling is predeceased by his wife of 49 years, Flora. In addition to his son, he is survived by daughter-in-law Lynne; grandchildren Sean and Melissa Dowling of Stamford, Conn., and Kerrie and Peter Stubbs of Princeton, N.J.; and great-grandchildren, Colin Dowling and Caitlin and Connor Stubbs.

A funeral Mass will be held Friday at 9:45 a.m. at St. Edward Confessor Church in Syosset.