Leeca Mullins (Peeples)

It was a sad & difficult day, when we all found out about his passing. Doug was such a special man, he had many friends, words can not discribe how we all miss him.

Curtis “Chad”wick Downs

Doug's dad Gene was a good friend and when he asked me to deliver Doug's eulogy this is what I came up with.

Good afternoon my name is Chad Downs and Doug was my friend.  

When Gene asked me to speak today I immediately started writing.  I wish I could say it was cathartic but really it just made me madder by the key stroke.  I am truly grateful to Al Gore for inventing the internet because every time I thought of Doug and a particular period in his life I could go to the web and find music of that day and the memories came flooding back.  And yes that made me mad as well. 

I wrote several pages about Doug, but after the fourth or fifth we did this or Doug did that I realized that Doug’s life….was more than a copulation of humorous antidotes and stories of which I assure you there are countless episodes.  And that made me mad. 

Doug and I met in 7th grade but I can’t for the life of me remember what class, where or how we met.  My first rock solid memory of Doug was Ms. Gray (World History) telling our class about the horrible skiing accident he had.  Our paths crisscrossed from 7th grade to the fall of 10th grade.  Our sophomore year we had the same biology teacher and she was giving a large review session before a final… Doug and I sat in the same group.  During the review session Doug and I caught up on everything but biology.  Doug was telling me about the Fiat 850, Friday nights, girls and well I really don’t remember much after cars, Friday nights and girls. I asked, “What time are you going to pick me up”.  We were fast friends from that day on.  I even learned to drive a standard in Doug's 850 Spidert the Moody Coliseum parking lot.

Like most friends we didn’t always see eye to eye. But we worked thru most incidents.  Like the time Martha Nichols and I were at the Old Church having a drink before the Senior All Night Party, Doug ran up to us and was so excited all he could do is knee me in the groin. I don’t remember much except for the numbing pain and the horrified look on Doug’s face after he realized what he had done. A hand shake would have been fine with me. I am pretty sure that round was on him.  

Some of Doug’s interest growing up included:

Photography: Doug could take a picture of Stop Sign and give a 90 minute lecture on aperture settings, film and shutter speed as well as color vs. black and white film.  With the invention of the digital camera we were all doomed. 

Diving for the HP Swim Team:  Doug was a good but not a great diver at Highland Park.  One particular meet Doug placed in the low board competition and it just so happened to coincide with Gene’s birthday.  After the meet we were headed out to grab a bite when I innocently asked him, “Hey what did you get your dad for his birthday?”  He told me that his diving was his dad’s gift.  Some 37 plus years later I still think that was pretty coolgift.  No, I didn’t ask him if he had a backup plan.  

Skiing:  Anyone who ever went skiing with Doug knows of his prowess on the slops 

Driving: I think any of us would be hard pressed to find anything Doug liked more than to drive…some of his legendary rides included….The Le Bomba (a mid 1960’s Buick as I recall with one troublesome headlight that the passenger (me) had to get out and kick to get it to come on), the before mentioned Fiat 850 Spider, a Bug Eye Sprite (a late 1950’s or 60’s era British sports car with a troublesome fuel pump that would require the passenger (me) to keep a wire grounded to the frame of the car to work properly, a Red Grand Prix, The Jeep, Joan’s old Riviera and finally 2 – 911s 

Music – some good (Joe Walsh, “Rocky Mountain Way” - Allen Parsons Project “Eye in the Sky”), some not so good (The Wiz, and anything Jino Vannelli – there is a mildly amusing story about ol Jino that I will share with anyone interested at the reception) but for the most part GREAT…I mean truly GREAT music (on one of my trips to visit Doug in New York he introduced me to the music of Tomita and his take on the “Grand Canyon Suite”). Carly Simon’s “You’re so Vain” was pretty much always within arm’s reach and most everything U2 recorded) he had a truly remarkable collection of music.  Not to mention the equipment to play it on. 

Doug loved the hip cool world of the 1960’s and 1970’s and he was a huge fan of Steve McQueen’s “Thomas Crown Affair” and “Bullet”.  To Doug this was the essence of cool.  I really thought Doug would grow up to be Thomas Crown.  

Doug was in the School of Advertising at UT.  Each year they would sell ads to pay for the school’s “Ad Book”.  Each student was required to sell $800.00 to $1,000.00 worth of advertising.  Well in typical Doug fashion he ripped thru his quota and asked the department head if it was ok to contact a few more vendors about ads.  When he had finished he had sold an all time record at the time in excess of $12,000.00 over 10 times the requirement amount. Doug was very proud of this accomplishment and well he should have.

After UT Doug embarked on his New York City period.  Doug spent several memorablevacations in The City with – Joe Field and Eric Stroud in the 1970’s and he knew this is where he wanted to try and make his bones… and he was ready to attack The City andO&M in the early 1980’s. Doug invited me to the Harvard house to celebrate with the family when he was hired at O&M.  We laughed about his moving on to the next phase of his life and being on the brink of adulthood… only to hop in the Jeep and “borrow about 20 various “Republican” candidates yard signs from numerous Park Cites homes and arrange them in the yard of a girl I was dating at the time…a Democrat girl…just goes to show how immature we were on the brink of adulthood.  

Doug’s stint at O&M wasn’t what he had hoped for and in 1983 he returned to Dallas to work for his dad.  

For Doug 1985 would be a defining year - the perfect storm Computers and Flying.  Doug borrowed Rick Kosman’s Compact computer and purchased a flight simulator software package and the rest as they say is history…A passion was ignited that would burn for the rest of his life.

Doug told me he suffered from dyslexia and with the convergence of a computer manual a pot of coffee, a few packs of cigarettes and most importantly time he could figure out most problems.  This would be the way Doug would live the rest of his life…pushing as long as possible trying to solve a problem and then crashing for an indeterminate length of time.  

He founded Propose Inc in the early 1990’s to try and automate the construction estimating process. It was really a great idea but after several setbacks he put Propose on the back burner. He asked me to do the voice over for a booth he shared at Comdex…that night we talked into the early hours about what could be.  

It was about this time he tried to convince me to try sky diving with him….as if.  

Now we all have little idiosyncrasies, habits and quirks… but really…. Doug may have been the quirkiest of us all.  From the Brooks Brothers white buck shoes he showed up in Austin to start his first year (he later died them brown) his trade mark Gucci Loafers.

How many of us would get a last minute phone call with a request to pick him up at the airport?  Now seriously close your eyes and picture Doug walking out of Love dressed in tennis shorts, Ralph Lauren button down shirt, blue blazer, Bosh & Loam Aviatorsunglasses and his signature Gucci loafers… am I right here or what?  

All of this from a guy who read, John T. Molloy’s, “How to Dress for Success”.  Now I did a little research about this book and Wikipedia says the publish date was 1975 but I could have sworn Doug was reading this while he was still at Armstrong.     

And it’s not that he didn’t have the cash for a cab (he would usually take me or his other victims to dinner somewhere new and trendy as a way of saying thank you) … besides it would guarantee Doug a dinner hostage to listen to his latest adventure or look thru his photo book.  I just don’t think that a cab was his preferred method of transpiration.

As most of us move on to wives/husbands, jobs, new cars, houses families or whatever Doug was always there to help celebrate.  Doug, Eric and an assortment of the usual suspects were at Turrel’s the night Kristin and I announced we were expecting Jordan.  No matter what time of day or night you could pretty much call him and he would meet you for dinner or a drink…..

Doug wasn’t a particular religious person.  Not that he had anything against God I just don’t think he understood religion.  After Doug died a friend of his call me to tell me that they had reconnected after all these years and how much she enjoyed having Doug in her life.  She went on to tell me about going to Young Life with Doug in high school and how much she enjoyed their brief time together.  She wondered aloud why God had her reconnect with Doug only to have him pass on so suddenly.  I listened and did what I could to console her only to have my own revelation a short time after our call.  Maybe their relationship was not meant as much for her as it was to mean for Doug…sort of like Gods attempt to reenter his life thru her.  I don’t know but it sure makes me wonder.    

U2 sings about:

I have climbed highest mountains
I have run through the fields

I have kissed honey lips
Felt the healing in her fingertips

Carried the cross
Of my shame
Oh my shame
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I don’t think I am as mad as I was six weeks, six days or six minutes ago but I am still pretty pissed at Doug for not taking care of himself any better.

As I am reading this Doug’s Propose Inc website was still up and running for how long I really don’t know but for me it is one of the last links to a friendship that lasted over 40 years with ups and downs and some issues left unresolved. The site isn’t complete but what is there shows an outline of what could have or should have been.