I first met Doug at a BAM meeting early in 1992.
He was demonstrating some twisting variations,
and since my total forging experience was a
three month,one night a week continuing education
class, I paid very close attention. After his
demo I approached him and asked a question. His
answer started, then resumed after lunch with a
hands on demonstration at the forge for about
another hour. Now, I didn’t know him, he didn’t
know me; but I wanted to learn and he wanted to
teach me. By the end of the day he had introduced
me to some of the endless possibilities of the
simplest operations in this art called hand
forging. He had also introduced me to everyone
he knew that came near the forge and made me feel
welcome.
That welcome feeling extended to my too infrequent
visits with Bonnie and Doug. Teaching and learning
went hand in hand with Doug, either one could get
him revved up and ready to try something completely
different. One Sunday afternoon I was at Lou
Mueller’s shop, workin at his forge, when in
comes Doug, on his way home from John C. Campbell.
Doug was wound up because he had finished a course
on lockmaking with (if I remember correctly) Tom
Latane, and spent an hour or so telling just how
much he learned and how he could use some of the
new technique in other works.
Then there were the discussions about art or Art
and where do you draw the line if there is a line
to be drawn between the two. Or the long talk about
selecting the proper font and whether the font
selection affected the work being typed or vice
versa. Or the latest story featuring Ole and Lena.
While finishing this I heard a corporate sponsor
message on KWMU that I’ll paraphrase:
Dougs mind was a green field where ideas frolicked
like new lambs on a warm Spring day.
I’ll miss him.
