Michael Manarino - Lifelong Friend & College Roommate

If I could choose one picture to exemplify who Doug was as a person, I think this might be it.

In our Senior year of college, Doug and I drove to East Lansing to celebrate Halloween with a few of our friends who went to MSU. Doug could’ve dressed up as the typical baseball player, Clark Kent, or lumberjack, but that would’ve been boring. Instead, Doug thought long and hard about who he wanted to dress up as each year, and this year, he landed on Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld. He hand picked all of the clothes that he was going to wear, and of course, no other 22 year old in East Lansing knew who he was supposed to be until he told them. Looking at his past costumes as Bob Ross, Jackie Moon from Semi Pro, and Bill Lumbergh from Office Space, I think he secretly liked to keep people guessing. He would always respond by throwing up his hands and in a semi-serious but playful tone that said “Obviously I’m Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld, how did you not know?!” Doug didn’t care what other people thought about him. He cared about putting a smile on everyone’s face after busting open our friend’s door with a 30-rack of Stroh’s and a sarcastic confused look on his face in a classic Cosmo Kramer fashion. He was going to be himself whether you liked it or not, and to this day I don’t think he met a single person that didn’t like it.

Jordan Hughes - Lifelong Friend

Having known Doug from age 6 through age 22 I have countless memories in all aspects of life. Sports obviously was a huge part of our lives growing up and through high school. This particular sports memory sticks out.

Doug was a huge competitor, so much so that he got violent about it at times. Most of the time though, he used the aggression to his advantage and took it out on the opposing team by playing better. During a baseball tournament our senior year, we were in a close game. Doug was batting, and got hit by a pitch. He started to toss his bat and take his base when the ump held him up. The ump said Doug couldn’t take his base because he didn’t try to get out of the way of the ball. Crap call, the whole team and crowd all saw him get hit and try to get out of the way. Doug, visibly pissed off, didn’t cuss out the ump like I’m sure he wanted to. He got back into the box without saying a word. Next pitch, Doug hits a bomb and trots around the bases with a huge smile on his face. Just one of countless examples of using his anger and aggression to help the team. We are lucky enough to have a photo of this moment, it’s one of my favorites of Doug.

Love you Doz.