Jackie Sheesley

My heart is very heavy today in learning of his passing. He was more than a teacher to me, I felt he was a very dear friend, mentor and someone I looked up to and whose wisdom, guidance and kindness I deeply appreciated and admired. I have never felt the way I felt when I was around him. I feel I am a much better artist and person in just having known him. I had to cram 2 years of history and studios into one year, just to get my BFA and had many classes with Doug. I remember once in a Drawing class with him, the semester was almost over and he had talked with the other students, but he had not stopped and talked to me. I was getting a little worried about how I was doing in the class, so I stopped him and asked him why he never stopped to discuss my work in class with me, and how I was concerned about my grade, and he said, don’t worry, you have gotten an A and I just wish I could put a megaphone in your head so we could all hear what you are thinking. I will never forget this as long as I live and it gave me a vast pride in myself and my work. He was always says complimentary and encouraging comments to me, which made me try harder and harder to improve my work and his pride and encouragement for me. As was mentioned before, by Chet Ross, I had a similar experience with Doug. I had no credentials to teach art, but a position opened, after I graduated from Drake, to teach art to the children at the Polk County Juvenile Facility. They were unable to get a qualified art teachers to take it and asked me if I would be interested. I said I would give it a try, but since I had never attempted to do anything like this before and since there was such a fast turn over of children and revolving door, I put together a course layout and went to Doug and asked him to review it and see what he thought, as I valued his opinion and teaching style. He said, can I use it next semester for my class. He always seemed to know just the right thing to say. Needless to say, all went extremely well, and the children had their first art classes, and vastly improved their grades in other classes. I can never thank Doug enough for what he taught me, in art and in life, meant to me, and helped me to become. The world has truly loss a great great artist, man, friend, and mentor. I will never forget you Doug. May you rest in peace. And if there is something after this life, I will see you there and tell you how much I now miss you. And maybe we can have another critique session with beer, wine and other enjoyments and sit and listen to the music and remember our wonderful old times together.

Kevin Callahan

I recently learned of Doug’s passing 3 years after the fact. Even so it saddens me greatly.
I was a student of Doug’s at Drake back in 1975. I was in fact a Graphics Design major
and commented for many years that it is good I came to sculpture my senior year as I am
certain I would have become a devoted deadbeat to the practice.

Several of the things I remember about Doug were:
● His infectious happy attitude about life and art
● He almost always wore bib overalls and had a billboard
of flapping pieces of paper pinned to his front.
He would write notes to himself, then pin them to his breast.
If you stopped to talk with him he would gaze down
mumble “oh, I did that one,” tear it off and proceed on
● Doug liked to hold “critiques” that started at 11:00 PM
and included beer and other things. We would often argue until
2:00 AM and I would explain to my new wife I was “at class”

In 1975 Doug succeeded in bringing the 10-state Flatlands Sculpture Show to Des Moines.
He arranged funding from a leading citizen (a patron of the arts) and
we (the sculpture students at Drake) were drafted to clean up the downtown building
and help “hang” the show. It was a juried show and I had a small wooden sculpture accepted.

The day of the show my wife (very over dressed) and I headed downtown.
When she walked in she remarked everyone looked like they had come to
clean out the barn. Doug saw me and motioned me over.
He was with our Patron and his wife. He threw his arm around me and
introduced us then he said “don’t let this boy fool you, underneath
those shoes and socks he is barefoot.” He was of course referring
to my hillbilly background, but I laughed so hard. Doug was a great
artist and a better man.