J. Ward Downey was a mining, construction engineer and an industrial management consultant from 1936 to the 1990s. Downey attended the University of California College of Mines from 1929 to 1936 before working in Grass Valley California to work in the mines. The Great Depression made it difficult to find work and Downey bounced from mines in Arizona, Idaho and northern California until WWII where he worked as an engineer for the Canol Project. From 1946 to 1950 he worked as head engineer for a Wyoming trona mine and then as a construction engineer for Western Knapp, Swinerton and Walberg, Pacific Mechanical engineering companies from 1952-1965. Downey then went on to work in construction and energy management and conservation for the Del Monte Corporation and then a constriction advisor for the International Service Corps. In this interview Downing discusses memorable men in the mining industry in the 1930s, education at the UC College of Mines, difficulty finding a job during the Great Depression, WWII, leaving mining for general construction engineering, Del Monte and the Executive Service Corps. Includes an autobiographical memoir written by J. Ward Downey.