Doug Connelley was born on August 30th, 1952, at Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He grew up in Chelsea, Michigan and was in the Chelsea High School Class of 1970.
In the wee hours of the morning on Sunday, July 16th in 2023, Doug’s eternal spirit was forever released from his earthbound wheelchair, with his family and his extended family of kind caretakers by his side at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Doug’s ingeniously fast mind and captivatingly kind heart were often obscured by his pretty face. The girls in high school loved Doug’s youthful good looks almost as much as his latest hospital nurses loved Doug’s 70-year-old boyish charm. It was his positive spirit that drove Doug’s heart though good and bad times, making them all good in the long run. If not, they were forgotten in the short run.
Doug loved life, regardless of its challenges. He prayed that everyone else could find positive experiences to be able to appreciate our time on earth as well as he did. As Doug’s younger brother Mike remarked, “Doug had a heart of gold and always worried about others. I’d hide at the doorway and listen to him pray. He never asked for anything for himself. He prayed for love and others to be in good health. He loved and believed in Christ.”
Having suffered a catastrophic injury from an automobile accident in his early 20s, Doug spent about 50 years of his life as a quadriplegic artist provocateur (one who induces others to be as artistic as he was). Doug painted beautiful watercolor images by holding paint brushes in his mouth. Doug uplifted everyone’s day with his positive charm offensive of curiously caring, with his raised eyebrows over his happy, shiny eyes on top of that big smile over his love of life. Tommy Lannon, one of Doug’s closely connected caretakers reflected, “Doug was a real-life Superman. Toughest and most tender guy I ever met.” Doug’s driving determination to love life was as powerful as his humble heart was soothing to those who found it hard to do so. Genuinely ingratiating himself to all with his honest good nature and brilliant foresight opened doors for Doug at a young age, doors he went through before most of us even knew what doors were for.
At 16-years-old, Doug was a roadie for the Up, a popular rock band. Doug moved into the band’s commune at the White Panther Party Headquarters, where he was an overhead projectionist and liquid lightshow artist for the People’s Power and Light Company, providing liquid light shows for bands like Grand Funk Railroad. At 17, Doug scanned how pages were laid out and did press typesetting for the Ann Arbor Argus Weekly Newspaper while teaching others how to do so.
At 20, Doug moved to Boston for a couple of years to work with the legendary Jeep Holland, a Michigan concert promoter, record company president, and former manager of many local bands. Not long after returning to Michigan, Doug was in a car wreck that changed his life forever. Doug then flew through the rest of his life like the Superman he always was, regardless of being bound to a wheelchair. Until recently. Doug’s love of life now flies free forever. Doug was saved and accepted the Lord in 1984 at the Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan and he kept a Bible at his bedside ever since.
Doug is survived by his father, Conrad Connelley, his mother, Faye Adams Connelley, brother, Michael Connelley, and sister, Connie Mejia, along with nephews, Chris Pittao of Windsor, Canada, Cameron Fraser of Pinkney, Michigan, and his special aunt, Judy Brown of Chelsea, Michigan.
Please join Doug Connelley’s family, friends, and extended family of friendly caretakers celebrating Doug’s love of life. A graveside service will be held on Saturday, July 29, 2023, 1:00 p.m. at the Oak Grove East Cemetery in Chelsea, Michigan
