by Bill Fain » Fri May 06, 2022 10:26 am
Hi All, It's been one year today since Doug left us. It has been a really long year without Doug. Dave Knight and I were going to Doug's the day he died to shoot guns. Dave found him and it was rough for both of us that day. He was an extraordinary person with many varied capabilities. Like many of us on this board and Fusor.net, he had tremendous curiosity that he almost satisfied daily with his experiments and projects. He, again, like many of us, loved high energy stuff. Be it drag cars, high power guns, or explosives. I miss my trips to Floyd where we would get into something on most all the trips, whether it be running or working on the fusor, shooting guns, or blowing up s%&t. I could pen a reasonably interesting manuscript on the things we got into, if I were actually a writer. Doug was usually the sharpest tool in the room( except maybe when he was at HEAS). He was also a tool every now and then as well. I remember one instance when we were building the add-on to his trailer and we were moving the solar panels. He got stung by a bee and took some Benadryl .He suddenly turned into a monster and I and the ex-con I brought up to help build the room were pretty scared of him and left for the day. This was reinforced by the fact that he kept a pistol within 6 feet of him at all times. No one was going to get the drop on Doug either physically or intellectually. Doug was a loyal friend and if you were his friend, you were gold. If you crossed him, well ,you were in trouble. Doug was quite the musician and could play just about anything. He was in the Pagan motorcycle band and was shot once on stage. I believe the bullet was still in him when he died. In those days things were rough and they didn't have any netting, so you had to be adept at dodging beer bottles. Because of his love for music and electronics he went on to invent the musicad board and pen a book on Digital sound. Doug had many businesses and ran a successful operation making equipment for the phone supplier, Valcom, in Roanoke Virginia. Doug said he would always find the people he employed at music shops. There seems to be some correlation between music, math, and intelligence. Think of all those physicists who play violin.
Because Doug was a "doer" he got hurt from time to time. He was working on a 6.5 mm Mauser rifle and put a new titanium bolt in it. Unfortunately it lacked the clips needed to secure it. When he fired it, and according to newtons laws, the bullet went forward and the firing pen went backward, shaving off part of his face. The doctor said a few more mm's and he would have been killed. The ironic thing about it was I came up there a few days after it happened, i was nursing a knot on my head from a hand truck that slipped, while carrying a 200# mass spectrometer power supply ( Think of one of those white geese with the knots on there skull). Doug Remarked that he had never seen anybody with a knot on their head that big; this while he was standing there with half of his face hanging off.
Doug wanted his work to continue, so Bob Reite graciously offered to carry on Doug's work and has Doug's fusor reconstructed in his lab in Pennsylvania. Doug and I agreed that Bob would be the best person to take on the task, being that Bob and Doug have similar skill sets.
Doug grew up in Fairfax Virginia and had a really good friend called Frank. They were lab partners at school and the instructor had to immediately separate them after several things "happend" in the lab. Doug also had a good friend, John Bain, that he met at a music store. They later went on to form and play in a band called "Apollo 11".
After Doug passed Frank and John decided to create a fitting tribute to Doug. Doug said he wanted to have his ashes spread on his property, He didn't really say how, So Frank and John came up with the idea of launching Doug's remains up in mortar shells. They obtained the necessary items and fashioned his remains into six 8" mortar shells. On the night of July 4, 2021, we launched Doug into the firmament. To some this may have been a morbid thing to do, but to many, it seemed to be the right thing to do.
So after Shaun, a local preacher that Doug knew, give a eulogy, off Doug went. A final sendoff for a wonderful friend. About a minute after one of Doug's shots, the trees were peppered with his remains, creating the sound of a summers evening light rain. Kind of eerie, but oddly satisfying. Anybody that has any interesting stories ( they probably all are) about Doug, please post. Bill
- Attachments
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- Doug ready for launch
