To have your tribute listed, email it to: shunt@corban.edu

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Steve Hunt, Corban Vice President for Marketing:
I miss Doug around here already. I depended on him for information, because he had an uncanny ability to somehow know anything and everything that was going on. While others had "heard" that someone was ill or in an accident, Doug could tell you their temperature, the expected prognosis and had already been down to visit them in their hospital room. If I needed enrollment information, I could get stats from the office, but Doug knew the name of most of the new students and also the name of their pastor...

For the last dozen years I've grown accustomed to seeing him work nonstop on behalf of ministry here on campus and throughout the West Coast. Much has been said about his passion for prayer, which was an overriding characteristic of his life, but I also enjoyed his fun-loving enthusiasm for mentoring young people and his excitement for doing t-shirts/graphics "for cheap."

Since I co-owned a t-shirt company several years back, we crossed paths and stayed in touch even before I came on board here at Corban. I had come out of the business world where accountability for the bottom line demanded much of the attention in the work. But Doug constantly amazed me with his homespun, handyman mentality for finding ways to meet the (non) budget of many small ministries and give them an affordable t-shirt they could be proud of. Even on campus he bent over backwards and worked all night sometimes to meet a last minute printing deadline--constantly serving and cheering on a student club or intramural squad. When he did give an invoice it was often slashed by half or more.

On Sunday, July 31, I was in Montana on vacation and took a side trip to the spot beside the highway where my father had died in an auto accident when I was 24. I'd made a metal cross to plant in the ditch as is the custom in that state wherever there was a traffic fatality. So I was already feeling pretty emotional/nostalgic when I returned and heard of Doug's heart attack. Unreal. Why does God take the cream of the crop and leave us ol' dregs around?....

I guess I know the answer--it's the mentoring thing. Maybe God allows many of us to apprentice under people like Doug so we can carry on after they're gone. There are hundreds and hundreds of young lives that have "apprenticed" under Doug's care at Camp Tadmor, at Jefferson Baptist Church, and at Corban College. Now it's up to us to carry the torch as best we can.

Today I talked to Nelson Zarfas about our common experience of losing a dad prematurely. I know how very proud Doug was of his kids, and I know that they will also need to learn to live without Dad. Life will be different but not necessarily worse. Sometimes this experience draws out the very best of the lessons learned early on, and will actually make an even greater impact on how their lives will play out tomorrow.

To Carrie, Rebecca, Joel, and Mackenzie, we pray for you--probably more intently because we know that is what Doug has modeled for us. May God enrich your lives and light your path in the unfamiliar days ahead, and comfort you in knowing that today Doug is worshipping his Lord like never before!

Dorothy James, Corban Executive Secretary to Dr. Reno Hoff:
“When meeting guests in my office Doug loved to say when introduced to them, "I'm old enough to be her son". They always looked so puzzled trying to figure that out!! It was my honor to be his "Campus Mom".… It’s just amazing how many people know him. … Short term missionary work was very important to him, and he was really involved in prayer walking. … Being around students was number one for Doug. He did not want to lose contact with students. … Doug was the epitome of what we want Corban to be. I think he really understood the vision. He saw outside the box. He had a good handle on the big picture. He seemed to be very aware of more than just his responsibility.” 

Daren Milionis, Corban Director of Career and Academic Services:
“Doug is a mentor in my life. … I learned more about prayer in five years from Doug than in the 20 years prior. I pray more seriously, more confidently. I pray on my knees more. These are all things I do since I met Doug. … He just walked close with the Lord and was compelled to pray often, for much. “This is classic Doug. Recently I needed $50. I told no one, just prayed about it. I prayed on Sunday, and Monday in the [on campus] mail was an envelope addressed to me with a $50 bill inside. I took it to Doug, and told him about my prayer and this answer, and all Doug said was, ‘God provides.’ Later I got a $100 bill, and then another $100. Each time I told Doug about it; he never let on it was from him, but I did some detective work and found it out. God was using Doug to answer my prayer! I still to this day don’t know why he gave it to me. He gave. He just gave. His resources were for others to use. Freely. His t-shirt ministry, his time, his advice. He just cared.” 

Jean Krause, for 25 years church secretary at Jefferson (Ore.) Baptist Church:
“He just lived full out for God. That was his consuming passion. When he received a call for help from our missionary friend, Tom Ward, even though he wasn’t feeling 100 percent, he didn’t hesitate a minute about wanting to go. He had several other trips scheduled for the fall, to Africa – Senegal and Sierra Leone. … He got into prayer because that’s what our church does most. Our pastor is very much interested in corporate prayer and Doug has been a part of that. “We’ve seen four churches established in Africa basically through prayer, which Doug has been a big part of. We have a feeding program for refugee children in Sierra Leone; feed several hundred a day. We support a refugee center and school in Senegal. We prayerwalked the areas first and developed relationships with missionaries and took on projects, and it’s all the result of prayer. Doug was a part of that. He always talks about seeing the lives of the kids changed because we have prayed for them. “He goes to everything his kids have ever done in school, transported them everywhere. He was right there when they needed him for anything. He helped Mackenzie design sets for a school dance. He just was there for his kids. … He and Carrie were quite a team; what one didn’t do, the other did. They were very involved together in missions work. … It’s kind of hard to sort through. He was always busy and always available to help. Help move furniture. Helped teach a men’s Bible study and in the lives of the men. He very much loved kids. He died doing what he loved to do.” 

Marty Ziesemer, Corban Dean of Enrollment Management:
"Doug liked to call himself the Director of Student Success. … He was known as the giveaway guy because he was, that’s what he did. He’s under the enrollment management umbrella but he was his own little department. Doug was a very highly respected person who loved the Lord like crazy and showed it in his walk with the Lord. He had the desire to serve the Lord. … Doug always liked to be the person to say when we went to him for advice, he wanted to know the purpose behind it. He was very motivated that we weren’t just doing an event but a purpose. … He was able to think outside the box. … He’s the one who started and kept the noontime prayer going. He pushed it and was very faithful in it. … He has been adamant that we turn away more people so we are the type of college that’s hard to get into. I remember a staff retreat and hiking around the falls, Doug put my son on his shoulders and hiked around the falls. My son still remembers that. That’s just Doug. I think of the time he was working with youth pastors for a big event and on the promo flyer he sent them all individual packets of Tylenol. He’s a good friend, a quality person. He’ll give you the shirt off his back to help you. He was definitely a giver. Never complained. He had lots of wisdom but he wasn’t willing to share it until someone asked. He didn’t try and jump in where he hadn’t been asked."

Phil Hayes, Corban Campus Care janitorial worker:
“We have a prayer time on Wednesday that Doug leads. We were talking about things that needed prayer and I asked how his health played into this. He had cancelled his trip [to London] because of health issues, but then got better so the trip was back on. He said, ‘I’d rather die there than here.’ In other words, he’d rather die doing what his heart was about. What he meant was, if his time is up, his time is up and he had no problems dying in London on that mission trip. That’s what I got out of that comment he made to me. … His involvement in Africa, seeing the needs there, helped keep him solid.”  

Floyd Votaw, Corban Librarian:
“Doug’s always wanted prayer at noontime. He started two years ago, during the summer. Usually about a half-dozen people were there. He’d have sheets of what to pray for and people held onto the sheets and would pray throughout the week. He said it was a half hour and he kept it to a half hour.” 

Steve Ellingboe, Facilities Manager at Camp Tadmor, near Lebanon, Ore.
“Doug was a creative force behind all the programming at the camp. He had a passion for excellence and he drove the staff to pursue that excellence. His focus was on program. We became known as one of the leaders in Northwest camping -- developing the themes for the programs, the staff development, the creativeness of putting skits, worship, speaking and recreation together into a coordinated creative package. We were always pushing the envelope —Wild West, Tom Sawyer, Every Day’s a Holiday, Mining Camp, and with those programs we would decorate the camp. The camp took on the theme – grass huts, gold mines. 

Dee F. Duke, Pastor, Jefferson (Ore.) Baptist Church:
[When asked when Doug got into prayer in a big way] “Right when they started coming to church. The key thing that drew him back here, even though they lived in Lebanon at the time, was the prayer issue. I think it was his own relationship with the Lord. When he got involved in prayer meetings it just sort of felt good to him."

 Dave Bertz, Administrator, Camp Tadmor:
“Doug's desire to serve others and have an influence on their lives through the ministry of Christian camping has been an example and encouragement to many camp and conference leaders. Doug had a way of giving an encouraging word or idea at just the right time. I will miss the support Doug has provided to me personally and through his involvement in the Christian Camp and Conference Association.” 

Tamara McGinnis, Assistant Professor of English and Director of Corban’s drama program:
"The t-shirt ministry for me demonstrated the generosity of Doug’s heart. He deeply wanted to support the ministry of others. He had just finished doing the t-shirts for theatre camp. He sent the bill and discounted it dramatically. He said ‘I wanted to help you and be a part of what was going on.’ That epitomizes Doug. He was a background ‘I want to be there to help’ person.”

Corey Wells, Corban Communications Spec./Graphic Designer:
"I didn't know Doug a long time, but in the time I got to know him I found him to be an 'above and beyond' type personality. The first time I met him I walked into his office and I noticed the magazine rack inside his door. In it was a Surfer magazine and it immediatley sparked a conversation with him. After learning of my interest in surfing and involvement with surfing missions, he regularly would send me links to some new surf video or surfing article. Doug had a purpose for everything he did, and under them all was just the opportunity to strike a conversation and talk to you, find out who you were and how he could help you become closer to God and serve Him better. He also sent me a decal of a surf shop he visited while in Senegal on a missions trip. I am reminded of his incredible thoughtfulness everyday as I see that decal pasted above my desk. He was also a very creative person and would send me ads and clippings from newspapers and magazines that he found creative and funny. He was dedicated to the students and staff of Corban and was genuinely interested in anything someone may have had an interest in. I regret I didn't get to know him better in the short time I knew him, but we will know each other intimately when I meet him again."