Douglas Wayne Deal was born at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, on April 6, 1972, the youngest child of David Claude Deal and Dorothy Marie (Cotton) Deal. He died on June 17, 2024, at Atrium Health Navicent Hospital in Macon, Georgia.

His funeral will be held at the Well at Centerville on Saturday, July 20, 2024, at 2:30 p.m., immediately followed by a casual reception. The Well at Centerville is located at 600 North Houston Lake Boulevard in Centerville, Georgia, and Pastor Tommy Odum will lead the service.

“Doug,” as he was known to his family and friends, possessed a keen intellect, displaying an early affinity for mathematics, science, and logic: as a young child, he entertained himself doing increasingly difficult math problems and his older siblings reveled in his ability to beat their teenage friends at chess. Doug was also an avid reader who devoured both newspapers and encyclopedias when most children were still learning their ABCs.

Doug spent his formative years in California, Saudi Arabia, and South Florida before settling in Hamilton, Ohio, for the remainder of secondary school. In high school, Doug honed his lifelong passions, writing for the school newspaper, competing on the chess team, and participating in the model U.N., among other activities. He also hosted afternoon poker games in his mother’s kitchen, well-remembered by friends for their collegiality and competitiveness. Doug graduated Hamilton High School in 1990, a National Merit Semifinalist in the top of his class.

In the fall of 1990, Doug began his studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, intending to pursue his love of physics. Disillusioned by the highly theoretical and unscientific nature of upper-level physics, Doug redirected his studies to Chemical Engineering, widely regarded as one of the toughest majors at Georgia Tech. Doug was also active in student government and journalism. He enjoyed his membership in the Atlanta Astronomy Club, which made use of the observatory at Agnes Scott College, where Doug missed many opportunities to meet the love of his life earlier and shortcut years of loneliness and pointless dates with less fantastic girls.

While completing his college education, Doug took semesters off to work and earn tuition money, jobs that included auditing for the Internal Revenue Service. He graduated from Georgia Tech with his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering in December 1997 and quickly began work at Gold Kist Poultry in Winder, Georgia.

As a child, Doug taught himself computer programming on his family’s Commodore 64. By the early 2000’s, Doug left chemical engineering to become a programmer, first of point-of-sale systems, then of web-based software applications. He moved to Macon in 2005 to work as a subcontractor for the Office of Personnel Management.

Doug met Lauren Alicia Love in November 2006, when he was 34 and she was 29, and it was truly love at first sight for both of them. Lauren was drawn to Doug’s integrity, intelligence, quick wit, compassion, culinary skills, and goofy T-Rex dance. They were also trauma-bonded by accidentally seeing Borat on their first date. Doug proposed on February 14, 2007, and within a year, their souls were joined forever. On October 20, 2007, they were married at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Macon, Georgia, before an intimate gathering of family and friends.

On February 15, 2008, Douglas Samuel “Sam” Deal was born, followed on April 9, 2011, by Isobel Jeanette Deal. Doug’s happiest years were spent raising children with Lauren. He loved sharing with them his passion for learning, traveling the country together, and exploring museums, historical sites, and small restaurants.

In 2013, Doug became the founder and publisher of Macon Community News, a print and online newspaper dedicated to promoting the businesses, people, and experiences that make Middle Georgia a wonderful place to live. He shared writing responsibilities with Lauren, who was the editor of the publication, and a team of amateur journalists, but Doug became well-known throughout the Macon restaurant industry for his food reviews and photography. In 2018, Doug retired from his job as a senior programmer to focus full-time on growing the newspaper.

Quite unexpectedly, in 2019, Doug was appointed to be the Deputy Director of Professional Licensing by the Georgia Secretary of State, a position he held until July 2020. Doug was a valued member of the Georgia GOP for many years, serving on the state committee and representing the state as an alternate at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida. In politics, Doug was principled, valuing personal liberty and decrying corporate capitalism. He was as quick to call out hypocrisy in his own party as in any other.

In July 2021, Doug became ill with COVID. After a week of minor symptoms, Doug’s oxygen levels plummeted, and he was hospitalized in early August. Subsequently, he was intubated and put on a ventilator; Doug spent nearly 4 weeks intubated and comatose. When he stabilized enough to tolerate a tracheostomy, sedation was slowly weaned away; despite waking to a promising start, Doug acquired sepsis through an infected PICC line and again fought death. When Doug transferred to Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, he had a Stage IV bedsore of 10cm diameter, with tunnels measuring 10cm and 17cm, and his entire body was so weak from almost 6 weeks comatose that he could only lift one of his hands unassisted.

When Doug came home in May 2022, he had been in the hospital for 9 months, on a ventilator for 5 months, and in the ICU for 2.5 months. Lauren was with him daily. He came home unable to stand, walk, swallow, lift his locked-in right arm, or perform most basic self-care, and his bedsore was still sizeable. With Doug’s hard work, and the encouragement and assistance of Sam, Isobel, and Lauren, he soon began feeding himself, helping with self-care, standing with mechanical assistance, and improving his range of motion in his arms. For a time, his oxygen supplementation needs continued to decrease and it appeared Doug would completely recover.

By the fall of 2023, Doug was standing unassisted and riding in the family’s van. He enjoyed dinners out, dates with Lauren, shopping trips, excursions to Atlanta, and a night at the movie theater to see Dune II. He could eat at favorite restaurants with old friends and enjoyed watching Sam and Isobel perform. But he also began to experience more difficulty breathing.

Throughout the spring, Doug’s health declined sharply and his oxygen needs increased dramatically. Suggestions that Doug simply gave up or gave in to depression are absolutely wrong and insulting to Doug’s memory: even with the challenges he faced in the last three years, he often said that he was the happiest he had ever been because he was with Lauren, Sam, and Isobel. Doug died from irreversible lung failure and heart failure.

Doug passed away peacefully, surrounded by beautiful music and twinkling lights to replicate the night sky he so dearly loved, while Lauren held him and read Compline. Doug died knowing how fully loved and deeply cherished he was—he and Lauren experienced more of marriage in seventeen years than some couples do in fifty.

He will be remembered by his family and friends for his sense of humor, especially his endless puns and congenial ribbing, his compassion, and his loyalty. He was a brilliant man who knew a little about a lot of things, but also he knew a lot about a lot of things. He loved sharing a meal with friends and family, even more so if he cooked the meal. He loved sharing ideas, and he was a man whose mind could be changed. He hated trip hazards and cords carelessly dragged across the ground.

Doug’s absence has left a huge hole in the hearts of his family, especially his wife, Lauren Deal, his beloved children, Sam and Isobel, and his mother-in-law, Lee Beaudet Love. He is survived by his mother, Dorothy Deal; sisters, Nina (Jeff) Trimble, Sonia (Kevin) Roth, and Claudette (Charles) Casey; brother-in-law Matthew Love, and numerous nieces, nephews, and in-laws. He was preceded in death by his father, David Deal; his brothers, Jimmie Deal and Raymond Deal; and his father-in-law, Christopher Love. 

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