David G. Douglas Led The Fight To Lift Hood Canal Bridge Toll

One of David G. Douglas' friends said everyone who drives across the Hood Canal Bridge without reaching for money should look up and say, "Thanks, Dave."

It was Mr. Douglas who boned up on contracts and the legal angles behind the bridge's toll and led the fight to zap it in 1985.

Mr. Douglas died Aug. 24 at age 77.

"Dave knew more about that issue than the attorney general of the state of Washington," said Joseph Wheeler, director of the Centrum Foundation in Port Townsend, a writing and arts center. "And he was the most tenacious person I've known.

"He'd call me to see if I had time for him to drop by. But Dave Douglas didn't just drop by. He'd walk in, eyes ablaze, and you knew he had an issue he wanted to take on. And you knew you'd take his side because it had to be the right one."

Yet he carried no grudges and was fair and objective, Wheeler said.

Born in Baltimore but reared in Ann Arbor, Mich., Mr. Douglas grew up in a family of activists.

After three years at the University of Michigan, he spent his fourth year at the University of Washington because he loved the Northwest.

Mr. Douglas was a Boeing Co. engineer until 1970, said his wife, Peggy Douglas of Port Ludlow, Jefferson County. Then he became plant-and-facilities manager for the Bellevue School District.

"We were active in school affairs, and he was on the board of directors of Bellevue School District," she said. "He worked to get the charter for Bellevue Community College."

In those years, Mr. Douglas also helped his sons in scouting and skiing, and took them sailing on his boat. He loved classical music "and would lose himself in it," his wife said.'

Whippet-thin but of average height, Mr. Douglas had a cherubic face set off by white hair and a beard, dark-brown eyes and heavy eyebrows he loved to twist up to make himself look devilish.

Two decades ago, Mr. Douglas retired and moved with his wife to Port Ludlow, remaining keenly interested in things going on around him. He believed in making the county or state follow the rules and regulations they had made.

He loved to delve into issues, such as why people still had to pay a toll on the new Hood Canal Bridge built to replace the one destroyed in a 1979 windstorm.

In 1985, a judge ruled that the $2 toll was illegal because the new bridge was financed not by tolls but by insurance and federal money.

Eventually Mr. Douglas also worked on the Port of Port Townsend commission and Jefferson County Board of Equalization, threw himself into helping the Chimacum School District pass levies and helped restructure the Port Ludlow Fire Department.

"In any community there are about 5 percent activists and 95 percent vegetables," said longtime friend and Republican Party leader C. Montgomery "Gummie" Johnson. "David was one of the activist animals."

Mr. Douglas' survivors include his sons, Michael of Orcas Island, Tim of Bellingham and David Jr. of Bellevue, and six grandchildren.

Services have been held. Remembrances may be sent to Rumsey Hall School, 201 Romford Road, Washington Depot, CN 06794, or the Port Ludlow Fire District, Oak Bay Road, Port Ludlow, WA 98365.