Managing Editor Don Douglass
"He never met a stranger."

Don Douglass 1947 - 1998

For the past six years, the voice of the BMW Owners News was Don Douglass. On February 9, he died unexpectedly in his sleep of congestive heart failure.

Known by most simply as "Douglass," he was born October 3, 1947 in Kansas City, Missouri. In addition to his wife, Deborah Jackson Douglass (D. J.), he is survived by his children by previous marriage, daughter Chandler, 16, and son Cody, 12.

To many members of the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America, BMW Owners News is BMW MOA. It is the heart and soul of our organization. Under Douglass' editorship, it became an extraordinarily fine, respected and handsome magazine for a motorcycle association. This reflected his care for it and talent in producing it.

Douglass was the managing editor of BMW Motorcycle Owners of America's flagship monthly magazine since 1992 and was an employee of BMW MOA since 1986, when he began as interim association manager. He was elected to the BMW MOA board of directors in 1985, became treasurer, but then resigned to take a staff position with the association.

Douglass obtained his bachelor's degree in education from the University of Missouri. Before working for BMW MOA, he had careers assisting runaway youth, mentally disturbed men, and prisoners with learning disabilities. He was able to relate to anyone and, according to many who spoke at his memorial service, "had an uncanny way of instantly sizing you up."

An accomplished artist, Douglass for a time ran a gallery in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, where he also worked painting in watercolors and other media. Not well known is the fact that the caricatures of columnists published in BMW Owners News were drawn by Douglass.

Sharing their love of motorcycles, Douglass married D. J. during the Gateway Riders' 1990 Falling Leaf Rally in Potosi, Missouri. As the groom, he wore his riding leathers. His bride, attired in leather dress, was ushered to the wedding ceremony in a sidecar-equipped BMW.

Douglass' death came as a shock to everyone who knew and loved him. Association Manager Barbara Zingre said, "He was my friend, my confidant, my mentor and my counselor. Douglass really just absorbed life and was always giving it back. He loved his work and would often say, 'I've got the greatest job in the world.' "

BMW Owners News Designer Sandy Cohen recalled, "Douglass really cared about the members. He had such a sensitivity for what they wanted. He would spend as much time as he could talking with any member who called on the phone saying it was an opportunity to make a new friend."

To me, Douglass was a big teddy bear of a man with a gravelly voice who loved motorcycling and loved BMW MOA and its members. He was a piercing observer of the human condition. He could stand up at a BMW MOA board meeting and summarize in one pithy sentence the status of the monthly magazine he edited. When he did uncork his tongue, he usually addressed the subject at hand with powerful emotion and a stunning insight that left his audience completely silent in response. He was unfailingly supportive of my contributions to the magazine, even well before I became a board member. He would talk to me often of the "neat" articles members would send in, and his vision of the issue that would bring them together.

D. J. Douglass has requested that persons wishing to memorialize Douglass should send contributions to the Don Douglass Memorial, National Motorcycle Safety Fund, 2 Jenner St., Suite 150, Irvine, CA 92618.

- Jeff Dean, President, BMW Motorcycle Owners of America

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