Arnold Collens

Doug and I go back to the 3rd grade at Fitgerald.  In the late grades we played basketball against our gym teachers who made every minute of every game fun for all of us. Playing Baseball against the Special "B" boys was tradition. Doug played. (The Fitzgerald building was sectioned and accomodated special need students on one side of the building). It was at Fitzgerald where we learned to respect differences.  Those were wonderful times as we started to learn who we were. Its was also there that I learned how athletic Doug was. At Mumford I watched him grow and  play those sports. He loved people and loved to tell stories about them - he met you - he remembered you. Over the years,  out of the blue, I'd get a call from him just wanting to talk and reminisce. He was a lovely man - May he RIP

Marvin Verlin (Wayne)

Doug was my niece's uncle and a good friend for so many years.  While we did not see each other much in the past few years because of distance, we did share time at the reunion.  As Arnie said, kind, thoughtful and all things positive.  We should all emulate these traits. 

David Rives

As pre-teens, Doug picked on me mercilessly for being obese.  Which woke me up to the fact that, at that time at least, fat people were not as socially-acceptable as nomral-sized people.  Which found me losing all my excess weight in a matter of weeks.  So, thank you, Doug.

He also cheated me out of some money at a little bowling game I had in my basement.  Which woke me up to the fact that people don't always "play be the rules".  Which. since that time, has made me "think twice" before simply trusting someone, something which has held me in good stead when I do it, and hurt me when I don't.  So, thanks for that, Doug.

I considered myself a pretty good athlete before Doug moved into the Bagley neighborhood (on Pennington, just south of 7 Mile) from the Fitzgerald one.  However, I didn't realize what "good" could mean, athletically, until I watched Doug play basketball, baseball (All-City pitcher), street hockey, etc., at which point I had a new standard to measure myself by; a higher standard to shoot for.   So, thanks, Doug. for (unconsciously) doing that. 

Others have said what a good person Doug became as an adult.  My fondest example of that was at our 30th or 40th reunion: when we were 12 or 13, Doug and I got into an actual fist fight (which I guess kids nowadays don't get into anymore, because they're glued to their "screens" all the time).  Well, at the reunion, Doug said, "I still have bruises from that fight(!)", which was an incredibly-gracious way of '"tipping his cap" my way; showing me the measure of respect he knew he hadn't shown me as a child.  So, thank you for that, Doug.

Of course, what Doug didn't know, since he was so new to the neighborhood, was that I worked every Summer, even as a pre-teen, in my father's furniture store, helping deliver 100-pound chairs and 200-pound sofas!  In other words, as he so rudely found out that long ago day -- and commented on those many years later: when I hit you, you knew you got hit!

May you rest in peace, my friend.  Thank you for opening my eyes to so much of this world!