BY ALBERT AMATEAU | For the past two decades, members of the Tompkins Square Park Neighborhood Coalition have been gathering on the park’s central lawn each December for a Christmas tree lighting ceremony.
On Sun., Dec. 11, coalition members will gather around the tree at 4 p.m. to dedicate their 20th annual event to the memory of Kevin Dowd, a former vice president of the coalition who died March 8 at the age of 57.
“Kevin was a talented, extraordinary man and his passing was a terrible blow to all of us,” said Albert Fabozzi, one of the coalition’s founders and a former chairperson of Community Board 3.
Kevin enjoyed meeting with friends at Veselka restaurant on Second Ave. and working with them on community projects at Theater for the New City and at the Third St. Music School. His friends remember him as dedicated to the neighborhood where he lived since 1980 when he became a graduate student at New York University’s film program.
A film production coordinator, he worked on such films as “Raising Arizona,” the 1987 Coen brothers film starring Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter; “Crocodile Dundee,” the 1986 Paul Hogan film; and “Bloodhounds of Broadway,” a 1989 film with Madonna.
He also worked on “American Playhouse,” a 1980s television series. A few years after graduating from the N.Y.U. film program, he spent some time in China working on “Iron & Silk,” a documentary film, according to his brother, Brian.
Kevin Dowd was born in Newark, N.J., to Charles and Mary Dowd. He went to Seaton Hall Preparatory School and graduated from Princeton University in 1976.
He was diagnosed with lung cancer in August 2010 and died seven months later.
