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.

Doug's Ashes

Here is a link to story about placing Doug's ashes in the St Francis river at flood stage.

Terry Lee Dill

As one Doug's sculpture students some 35 years ago, I
thought about and remembered a hundred stories of the
times we spent together. I don't think that Doug ever
knew how important he was to me. He was my teacher, my
friend, and one my greatest mentors. He was the
approving father of my career in the arts.

I cried when I first hear the news of his passing. I
still quote him from time to time. He always passed on
his lessons in life.

I owe him a lot because he always gave me the freedom
to do my work and trusted in my talent to execute it
in my own creative way. I would stay up for 2 or 3
days at time working on my sculpture because he was
such a great inspiration. He somehow made you want to
please him and work hard even when he knew that you
would be the one that gained from the experience. You
could always trust that down deep he would be honest
with you.

There was the time I was worked on a kinetic sculpture
with two or three electric motors. It was very complex
piece and I had little experience with such things.
After six months, Doug finally offered to buy the
piece from me - I said "what for? I didn't even think
you liked it". "I don't" he said," I want take a
hammer to it and destroy it. It's a bad piece Terry,
please, please get rid this piece of crap!" I stopped
working on the piece two weeks later. It took a huge
load off my mind. He knew he was doing it for my
benefit. Doug had a great sense of humor, he use to
make me laugh so hard that tears would come to my
eyes.

He was always taking care of me. He once saved my ass
in bar fight. I got myself in trouble with some locals
on one of our motorcycle trips and he pulled me out
before half the bar came after me.

Doug taught me so many things. He was so generous with
his time. My goal has been to be the best artist I
could be and make him proud of me.

I spent a lot time with Doug, Bonnie, and Mike. They
were all so supportive and were like a second family.
When I was told I only had six months to live because
of my heart condition, Doug was the only person aside
from my mother who showed up in my hospital room at
the Mayo Clinic (by the way I'm still ticking 35 years
later).

He was great man, great person, great friend and he
will never be gone from my heart. I will get misty
eyed when I think about him in the future. He will
continue to live in my thoughts until I die.

Daniel Jordan

I met Doug some years ago. I was a student in an
iron class he gave at Penland built around the idea
of the circle. That concept typified Doug's orientation
as a teacher. He loved teaching. He abhored
dogmatism. He encouraged each of us to
expand our horizons and experiment.

I was quite a bit older than Doug and that
allowed for a little different relation than
is usual between teacher and student. Doug
was delighted when he learned that
I had started out as a union organizer and
was working at the time of the class
as a union lawyer. My background appealed
to his working class sensibilities and
he and my wife ( who is also a union person)
got together both at that class and
at other ABANA conferences and other events
where we happened to be and sang
union songs, working songs, and folk songs
accompanied by beer and good fellowship.
Frequently Bonnie was in on these events.
We were terribly saddened to learn of Doug's
illness when we arrived at the ABANA conference
in Seattle in 2006. Now we are further
saddened by Doug's death and can only convey
to Bonnie our profound sadness and
offer our condolence at the passing of this lovely man.

Chet Ross

I first met Doug in 1975 while interviewing for my first teaching position
at Drake University. I had little experience as a designer and absolutely
no experience as a teacher other than one semester as a teaching
assistant doing an intro course in foundation design. I remember very
little about the interview except for my encounter with Doug. He essentially
said he liked me for the job I was interviewing for — teaching interior
design in the Art Department. When I asked Doug why he thought I would
fit the position his answer has always stayed with me: “It’s obvious.
Anyone who could drive a tank and lead an infantry platoon in Vietnam
can certainly do well at this job despite having no teaching experience”.
When I mentioned that I failed to see the connection between my military
experiences and teaching in the Fine Arts College, he said, “You have
done many different and demanding things for such a young person
(I was 26), and you seem to continually demonstrate that you not only
can survive, but you also do very well at whatever you manage to get
yourself involved with, so teaching should be a snap for you”.

For me it was a simple yet a profound reply – an answer based on
seeing things in terms of black and white rather than in gray scale.
His answer had always been in my head and played a significant
role in my growth as an educator and designer. Quite simply, I have
never been afraid to tackle new challenges. On several occasions
when I had been confronted with making decisions that would
potentially cause major changes in my life, I simply thought of Doug’s
comments and moved forward to the next endeavor. I am certain
Doug never realized it, but he opened a big door for me – a door to
self-confidence that enabled me to accept varying tasks with little
knowledge of how I would manage – but I always did.

I also remember well the gathering at Doug’s house shortly before
Doug and Lee’s departure from Des Moines – Randy Long mentioned
this gathering in her thoughts. We drank good beer, smoked the funny
weed and did “finger dips” in very hot Thai hot sauce to see who could
take the heat and who could do the most finger dips. We laughed so
hard we cried – Doug and I both commented that the muscles behind
our heads were hurting as the tears from laughter rolled down our
cheeks (or was it from the hot sauce).

Doug was a great human being with a lot of common sense. He had
a wonderful sense of humor and was a gifted craftsman and artist.
I also found Doug to be a humble and shy person. Despite the fact
that our paths rarely crossed since my departure from Drake University,
I often thought of he and Bonnie and will continue to do so. I also cherish
the piece of his art work he gave me as a fair well gift. It has always
commanded a special place in my home, and will always provoke
memories of Doug and his sense of humor, his wisdoms, his craft
and the many ways our brief encounter influenced my life forever.

Drake University

Here is a link to an obit on Drake's web site.