John Matthew McDowell passed away peacefully Tuesday, Dec. 24, while surrounded by family after a 19-month battle with cancer. He was 59 and spent the past 24 years as a renowned professor in the school of plant and environmental sciences at Virginia Tech.
He spent his entire life improving lives around him as a devoted son, brother, husband, professor, friend and father. From his wife, sons, to his coworkers, college roommates, family and countless others, everyone has a story about John that evokes smiles and laughter.
John was a serious man when he needed to be. He took a measured, insightful and detail-oriented approach to life that commanded respect. That did not stop him from having plenty of fun in his time away from the lab. One time, he drove a golf cart through a collection of lawn chairs after celebrating a wedding between close friends.
Decades later, he spoke in front of the U.S. Congress advocating for scientific research funding. John loved his work and poured his life into it but also found plenty of time to make sure those around him felt extremely loved.
He was equally happy to spend a day at work researching, outside riding his mountain bike or on the living room couch watching college football for 10 hours with his son. Everyone who spent time with him in any of those settings left cherishing those experiences.
Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, April 30,1965, his childhood was filled with a love for reading, camping, and a budding curiosity for the natural world. He enrolled at the University of Tennessee in 1983, majoring in forestry after arriving at the school as an Eagle Scout. An issue of Time Magazine ignited his passion for plant genetics, and he built a career from there.
John has been published in 39 scientific journals since 2010. He holds a PhD from the University of Georgia and worked at Virginia Tech for more than 20 years, joining the university in 2000. During that time, he built friendships and a family while piling up professional awards and recognition— including a Certificate of Teaching Excellence from the Hokies’ College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
He taught graduate-level classes and was appointed by the university as the J.B. Stroobants Professor of Biotechnology. John’s contributions to the scientific community, both personally and professionally, are highly regarded all over the world.
John married Cathy McDowell June 3, 1995, in the backyard of his childhood home. They enjoyed 29 years of loving marriage that included a road trip to the United States Southwest as their honeymoon. John loved to travel and found the perfect partner for that in Cathy. He was frugal in some areas but not when it came to exploring the world.
They took anniversary trips to Paris and Greece and traveled with their sons— Ethan and Jonah— all over America. He loved camping and took annual vacations to Western North Carolina to mountain bike, and he spent time at ski resorts throughout the country with his family and friends from college.
On one of those camping expeditions, John and Jim Major— who have known each other since their freshman year at Tennessee— found themselves deep in the woods on a mountain bike ride when a thunderstorm erupted, causing trees to fall around them. Jim asked if they should wait out the storm.
“A moving target is harder to hit,” John replied with a smile before taking off down the trail.
He remained positive even in tough circumstances— an attitude that his friends and family admired and could not help adopt themselves. Throughout his life, he was persistent and even stubborn at times. Lightning struck him three times while rock climbing, but he stuck with one of his favorite hobbies. John broke his arm on the first day of a weeklong skiing trip but kept carving up the powder until his wife made him stop once she found out about the injury later that day.
Adversity, big and small, never rattled him. His cancer diagnosis did not shake him from his unwavering dedication to those around him, his career and his hobbies.
He did not hesitate to tell people he loved them and also showed that in his actions. There was never any doubt that he cared deeply about those who cared about him.
John is survived by his beloved wife, Cathy, of Blacksburg; his sons, Jonah of Washington, D.C., and Ethan of Raleigh, North Carolina; his mother, Martha Jane, of Blacksburg; and his sisters, Susan and Mary, of Austin, Texas.
In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests that donations be made in his memory to the Poverty Creek Trails Coalition and The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center. The family is planning a celebration of life for spring 2025.
