Doug was unique. He possessed a combination of intelligence, talent and irreverence (check out his yearbook candid) that I've never seen duplicated. "Dougie" and I were in eighth grade Social Studies together. Our teacher always took her 15 minute break during our 7th period class. Doug viewed it as a personal challenge to prank her during every class. One example: As soon as our instructor left the room, Dougie stood up and organized the construction of a pyramid of desks. He was disappointed that the pyramid could only be built three tiers high (the ceiling got in our way). Doug coordinated the effort and ensured that we were all dutifully seated, in tiers. Dougie assigned each of us our seats and designated one young lady to sit at the desk at the top of the pyramid. His instruction: "Act normal, sit with your hands folded and continue our lesson as good little children. This is how a classroom should be". Dougie effected this effort - got 23, 13 year olds to build a pyramid out of desks and climb into assigned seats within 15 minutes. It's fair to say that our instructor was not impressed the same way that I was... Doug was leader, a born organizer, an observer of life and "wicked smaht" as Ben Affleck might say. He proved it by becoming a professional musician with Adrea True Connection, a degreed engineer, a business creator and, yes, father of the year. If Doug was at this reunion, we'd soon be sitting in a pyramid or maybe this time it would be a revolving Rubik's cube. I am very proud to say that he was my good friend.