Donald Bruce MacDougall left the suffering behind and stepped into Heaven while in the presence of the love of his life Julie on April 30, 2024. This brought to a close a twelve year journey with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Born December 5, 1956 in Toronto, Canada, Don moved to the United States when he was a toddler. His family spent a couple years on the east coast then settled in Los Altos, California, where he attended school from elementary through junior college. His fondest family memories include his parents John and Inna, and three siblings William, Peggy and Nancy camping and backpacking together in the High Sierras (though he often said that he didn’t think his Dad needed to have them haul their gear quite as far as they did!)

Don attended UC Irvine and played goalkeeper on the school’s soccer team until he graduated in 1979. He began his career at an up and coming company called Apple Computer in 1980 where he worked for 12 years as a Manufacturing Engineer and Project Manager. He and Julie met in 1983, were married in 1985, blessed with their son Daniel in 1987 and their daughter Laney in 1990. While at Apple, Don initiated a Co-op program where he focused on hiring and mentoring young engineers from Cal Poly. He earned his master’s degree and graduated top of his class in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Stanford University in 1991. After graduating he remained at Apple for 2 more years and they had their son Matthew in 1993.

Their family was complete when he accepted his dream job at IDEO as a Product Designer, where he formed personal and professional relationships that would last the rest of his life. At IDEO he was able to stretch and develop all types of creative muscles working on a variety of products (Steelcase office furniture, medical equipment, Nike sunglasses, Tivo remote control, numerous Apple devices, etc). He loved the work and the many creative people at IDEO.

When their oldest was about to enter 6th grade Don and Julie decided that they wanted to move to a more rural area to raise their family. In 1999, Don set out to find a job in San Luis Obispo county and was thrilled to be hired at Ziatech where once again he was blessed to work for a great company alongside some wonderful employees. They moved from Cupertino and settled in Arroyo Grande on 5 acres and proceeded to build their family house and home.

His work took Don all over the world meeting clients or setting up production lines. Early on these travels took in Austin, Singapore, Hong Kong and Cork, and later Shanghai and Beijing. While his dedication and enthusiasm carried him through these trips, he deeply missed his family and couldn’t wait to get back to them.

Don was a devoted father and was highly involved in his three children’s lives. Whether he was coaching or watching their sports, creating Halloween costumes, or mentoring a robotics team, Don raised his kids with values of good sportsmanship, hard work, and pride of craftsmanship. He was loved not just by his children but by their friends as well, and he became a strong mentor figure for many of them. For himself he spent as much time as possible on the golf course, but could also be found drawing in one of his many sketchbooks, working on various writing projects or just working in the yard with Julie, shadowed by our faithful labradors Ruby and Penny.

In many ways the extrovert of the family, Don was able to joke and talk easily with just about anyone. His smile could light up any room he walked into. Don faced a long, difficult path in the last years of his life but was strengthened by his strong faith and spent most of that time in the comfort of his own home. He was cared for by Julie and Matthew until 2022, when his health required us to move him to a small, warm care home in San Luis Obispo where we visited him most everyday. He never lost his kind temperament and sense of humor.  He is survived by his two sisters and sister in law, and his wife, three children, daughter in law and two grandchildren.

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