He was, in his own words, "a writer of RPGs; essays, and short fiction, a Deadhead, a Burner, a metal fan, a 49er and Giants fanatic, a cancer survivor, a science fiction fan ... I wear black all the time, not because I'm an artist, but because I have very little fashion sense. After suffering a stroke in 2013, I've been on the long road to recovery. I used to be a truck driver, dispatcher and served as an infantryman in the United States Army."

I'll add that he had a keen interest in history, military and otherwise; one of his annual rituals was to observe Camerone Day every April 30. I knew him as "Gridlore", his nickname on the Traveller Mailing List - one of the oldest science-fiction RPGs still in publication, and Doug himself was one of the fortunate few who get to officially write for their setting of choice, as the author of GURPS Traveller: Ground Forces (among other contributions and credits) - while his fellow lunatics participants at Burning Man knew him as "Uncle Bullhorn". We never actually met in person, though we did correspond for many years both on and off the TML, and he once extended me an open invitation to BayCon.

He is survived by his wife of 32 years, Kirsten, and by his work, some of which can be found on his Dreamwidth journal, which now includes - thanks to her heroic effort - content previously only available on his Patreon.

As noted above, he survived cancer, but COVID was what finally did him in. Fuck both of 'em.

G'bye, Doug. I'm sorry I missed you, and that I didn't miss you sooner.

Wow. I mean, I knew - I met him on USENET, reconnected on Facebook, and heard at the time...but...

...well, I never thought about connecting here and there. I suppose I should have, because I've had connections like that pop up before, but mostly I don't think about connecting different websites without reason.

Peter Eng
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Insert humorous comment here.

Not only was he Of the Eyrie Sort, he's actually in UF--he's trooper TK-901S, the sniper in Jay McCandless's White Legion special action force, appearing with the rest of said force in The Vastru Encounter and The Revolution Will Be Televised.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.