Doug
was born March 29, 1944 in Denver, Colorado the son Douglas C.
Sovern and Elaine Rose Sovern (nee Ross). The Sovern family was
a multi-generational family in the City of Englewood. Doug was
the fourth generation in Englewood.
Doug
was born March 29, 1944 in Denver, Colorado the son Douglas C.
Sovern and Elaine Rose Sovern (nee Ross). The Sovern family was
a multi-generational family in the City of Englewood. Doug was
the fourth generation in Englewood.
Doug attended Cherrelyn Elementary, Sinclair Junior High, and graduated from Englewood High School in 1962. While in high school Doug participated in football, basketball, and baseball. He was a member of the Key Club, Gavel Club, Student Senate, and the Honor Society. Doug went on to attend Colorado State University in Fort Collins and majored in Civil Engineering. He received his Bachelors and Masters at CSU. He was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.
Doug met his wife, Donna Davis, while attending CSU and they were married in 1968. Both Doug and Donna worked at Wright McLaughlin Engineers. Doug would stay with Wright McLaughlin for twenty years. They lived in an apartment home on South Washington Street. In 1971 they moved into their brand newly built home on South Knox Court in western Englewood. Their daughter Holli was born in 1972.
Doug started learning about firefighting in the early sixties,
with his dad, who was a paid member of the Englewood Fire Department.
Doug's father was Chief of the Englewood Fire Department in 1968.
It was at that time that Doug started working as an Englewood
volunteer firefighter. Doug served on the Englewood City Council
from 1974 through 1978 as an at large member.
Doug later became a volunteer with the Sheridan Fire Department. This was at the time when the City of Englewood discontinued the use of volunteers in the late eighties. Eleven Englewood volunteers transferred to the Sheridan Fire department as volunteers. Doug stepped down as an active volunteer firefighter after twenty years of service.
Upon
taking his official retirement in 1994 Doug wrote the following
in a letter to the Sheridan Pension Board. "I can't say that
every minute of all my years of service were filled with joy,
but I can say that it was a worthwhile endeavor, particularly
the time that I spent on the Sheridan Fire Department. Fighting
fires was the activity that I wanted to do. At Sheridan, that
is what we got to do."
One of Doug's lifelong hobbies was participating in chili cookoffs. Doug competed in the International Chili Society's World Championship multiple times; placing second twice. His team name was Stingray Chili. Combining his love for cooking and classic cars.
With their daughter in college, Doug and Donna decided to move to Seattle in 1991. They lived in Seattle for 17 years. Doug was having health issues and Donna was in job transition so they decided to move back to Colorado. Doug and Donna celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 2018.
They had been back in Colorado about eleven years when Doug
passed away on March 13, 2019 from complications of diabetes and
kidney disease. Two weeks short of being seventy-five years old.
Doug is survived by his wife Donna of Aurora, daughter Holli (Richard)
Tredinnick of Memphis, Tennessee, granddaughters Shawn Marie and
Alexis Trendinnick, and brother Barry Sovern of Silt, Colorado.
He was predeceased by his parents and older sister Sherrill Sovern.
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