Ed Dowd fights multiple sclerosis while focusing on philanthropy
By John Flood, Town Crier Staff Writer
 Ed Dowd donated the glass sculpture “Joyous” by Dale Chihuly to brighten the lobby at the new Camino Medical Groups facility on El Camino Real in Mountain View. Dowd has contributed $4.1 million to the medical group. |
“I went to several doctors,” Dowd said. “I was told there was nothing wrong with me and it was all in my head. I was sent to a psychologist and told that I had anger issues. It was a young medical intern who finally diagnosed the disease.”
His struggle with multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease that often leaves people with severe depression, is an abject lesson in acceptance. He deals with his condition without a trace of self-pity, said his friends and colleagues.
“I’ve never seen him negative or acting like ‘oh, woe is me,’” said Terri Eckert, his director of operations.
Even though Dowd still works hard on his businesses - he owns apartments and mobile-home parks in San Jose - these days he relies on Eckert to handle the details.
By spending less time on business, he conserves his energy and can devote more time to philanthropy and collecting art, a fundamental part of his vision for philanthropy, Dowd said.
His most recent philanthropic effort was a $4.1 million gift to the new Camino Medical Group (CMG) facility in Mountain View, which opened in April.
His gift included a glass sculpture, “Joyous,” by artist Dale Chihuly that hangs in the CMG lobby.
“His donation to CMG (the Chihuly sculpture) gives people who are frightened and hurting something that makes them feel better,” said Dr. Philip Brosterhous, Dowd’s former physician and CMG medical director.
“My overall focus (with philanthropy) is to help improve the quality of life for people who have limitations and limited financial resources,” Dowd said.
Since 2002, he has donated over $37,000 to the Town Crier Holiday Fund, including $15,678 last year.
A resident of Los Altos for 27 years, Dowd currently resides in an elegantly appointed condominium on the 37th floor of the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco. He intends to move back to Los Altos when he finds a house that is wheelchair friendly.
“I really like Los Altos. I’d still be living there except for the fact that it’s not friendly for wheelchair access,” he said referring to the downtown retail shops. “The Four Seasons is ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant.”
Sitting in a stuffed easy chair, with his wheelchair on one side and a panoramic view of San Francisco Bay on the other, Dowd smiles easily, lacing humor and irony throughout the conversation.
“I’m not out drinking five Manhattans every night,” he said with a smile, referring to the way he manages his health today.
Life on its own terms
Dowd believes his multiple sclerosis is a blessing.
“Before being diagnosed with MS, I was working a minimum of 70-hour weeks and my only focus was work,” Dowd said. “I trusted very few people. I have a different lifestyle today, and I like it better.”
He manages his condition by taking medication, eating right, getting the rest he needs and exercising with the help of a personal trainer.
“What I have, I have,” Dowd said, referring to multiple sclerosis. “It’s not going away. I don’t fight it. I think about what I can do, not what I can’t.”
“The disease was an awakening for him,” Brosterhous said. “It hit him in the prime of his life. It brought frailty to him in a stark way.”
“It brought him down to live the real life, instead of the pretend life on the pedestal,” said Jenny Luong, a friend of Dowd’s. “He used to be suspicious. Today, he’s taken his guard down.”
Results-oriented philanthropy
Even though Dowd supports charitable causes, he doesn’t just give the money and forget about it.
“If I’m writing a seven-figure check, I expect accountability,” he said. “I started with nothing. It was a hard grind. As hard as it was to make it, I’m not just going to say, ‘No big deal, you can have it.’”
After Dowd experienced frustration with several organizations over his philosophy of giving, he sharpened his expectations about what he wants in the philanthropic exchange.
“I expect to work with organizations that are willing to listen to and work toward achieving my vision,” Dowd said. “I do not want to work with organizations that want me to fund their goals. I expect to work with organizations that are willing to do all the heavy lifting in return for the gift I am willing to give.”
His next philanthropic project is a 40- to 60-unit housing development in San Jose for people with disabilities. Units will be offered at below-market rates.
Dowd will donate 2.5 acres for the development and a not-for-profit developer will build and manage it.
“Anybody with disabilities is welcome,” Dowd said. “It will meet ADA compliance and have a concierge service and an art component.”
The project is still in the conceptual stage while Dowd looks for a developer.
“We hope to break ground in 2008 or 2009,” Eckert said.
Early days influence outcomes
Dowd was born in San Francisco, the eldest of three boys, and raised in Salinas. His mother was from Ireland and his father, an American, was an FBI agent.
“There wasn’t enough to do in Salinas in the 1960s,” Dowd said. “It was a small town back then.”
Even though Dowd participated in athletics, he found time to get into trouble with the law until a juvenile court judge eventually gave him an option.
“The judge offered me the juvenile county farm or the military,” Dowd said.
He chose the U.S. Air Force.
“My father drove me to the Greyhound bus depot to go to the induction center,” he said. “He sat in the car until the bus took off. He made sure I didn’t get off the bus.”
The military was his ticket out of Salinas, a life that was beginning to look like a dead end.
“I never looked back, not for a second. I was very happy to be gone. If I had stayed in Salinas, it would have been a disaster for me.”
If the atmosphere of Salinas wasn’t supportive, neither were the school administrators who sized up Dowd’s potential, or lack thereof.
“They put a label on me in high school, ‘not college material,’” he said. “That squashed my self-esteem.”
After serving in the military from 1965 until 1969, Dowd enrolled in Santa Clara University. Working full time to pay for his tuition, he earned a bachelor’s degree in commerce in 1972.
“Graduating from the university is the single thing I’m most proud of,” Dowd said.
The go-go years
After working in a low-paying job for four years, Dowd joined Marcus & Millichap, a Palo Alto real estate investment firm as a salesman in 1976.
Even though the income potential attracted him, it was the feeling he had for the co-chairmen of the firm, Bill Millichap and George Marcus, that inspired him to join the company and to excel at selling.
“Bill and George were wonderful people and the money became a secondary issue,” Dowd said. “Sometimes you meet people and you realize that these are people I want to be around.”
To this day, Dowd credits Millichap and Marcus as the most influential people in his life.
“Sometimes you get around the right people with the right energy and the right connections and you get the feeling you belong there. They helped me get motivated to do a better and better job,” he said.
“He was one of our first and very successful salespeople,” said Bill Millichap, co-chairman of Marcus & Millichap. “His first-year record of success lasted 10 years.”
Dowd worked for Marcus & Millichap for eight years. After leaving the firm, he founded his own investment real estate company, EMD Properties Inc.
The number of apartments Dowd owns placed him among the top five owners in the San Jose area, Millichap said.
Character matters
Dowd characterizes himself as someone with good instincts, who puts friendship over the need to make money and who takes risks.
People who know him take it further.
“He was the first one at my side after an auto accident,” said George Marcus, co-chairman of Marcus & Millichap. “He is committed to friends more than anyone I’ve met.”
“He’s been a great mentor and he’s absolutely inspirational,” said Tracy Brunetti, a friend and a vice president of operations at Alliance Residential, a real estate management firm in San Diego. “He’s always encouraged me to jump off the deep end and not worry.”
“He’s my main mentor in life,” said Luong, a friend of Dowd’s and a former resident of Los Altos. “He told me, ‘What’s the worst thing that can happen? You need to make mistakes.’”
For Eckert, a former interior designer, taking over Dowd’s business interests was a big
leap.
“He taught me to let go of fear,” Eckert said. “He has incredible instincts. He sizes up something immediately and he’s almost always on target. Ed is a mentor.”
While Dowd can be tough, he has a lot of patience in the hope to see people do well.
“He takes a long time to let people live up to their potential,” Eckert said. “He always tries to let people live up to their expectations.”
