Reflections on the passing of our friend Doug Falconer

Dear fellow Gee-Gees alumni,

I am sure a lot of you have heard the tragic news by now of the passing of our great friend, teammate and dedicated 1881 Director Doug Falconer. For those of you who are unaware or who may not have had the pleasure of meeting Doug (or DJ as his closest friends called him) he suddenly passed away in Kingston while out with his girlfriend Joanne last Sunday afternoon. Doug had a hereditary heart condition that was similar to his father and brother who both passed away at a very young age as a result of this condition..

Doug was a tremendous athlete having been a member of the legendary 1975 Vanier Cup Championship team and also the 1976 Grey Cup Champion Ottawa Rough Riders. He is a member of both the University of Ottawa Football Hall of Fame and the City of Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame. Off the field Doug was a tireless contributor to the football program as a Director of our alumni association 1881. Doug established the first ever entrance scholarship to our football program named the Gilbert-Fraser-Morrison scholarship in honour of his former head coach at uOttawa Don Gilbert and Doug Fraser and Bob Morrison his basketball and football coaches at his former high school, La Salle Secondary School in Kingston, ON. Doug played a key role in our three major events, the Panda Game, TD Dinner and the Yves LeClerc Golf Tournament and personally donated and raised thousands of dollars for our program. Doug was extremely proud to be a member of the Gee-Gees football fraternity and bled Garnet and Grey.

After his football days Doug had great success in the TV and Film industry as Chairman of Falconer Pictures having produced several high profile feature films. These films included some of the biggest names in Hollywood such as Mel Gibson, Donald Sutherland, Demi Moore, Richard Dreyfuss and Jamie Foxx just to name a few. One of his films, "Forsaken" was an official selection of the Toronto International Film Festival in 2015 and was nominated for five 2016 Canadian Screen Awards. His most recent film, Dangerous, starring Scott Eastwood (son of Clint) will be launched at TIFF this year.

There will be a tribute to Doug posted on our alumni site (that he personally developed), 1881football.com, in the coming days and we will be working with the University to come up with a way to recognize Doug's contributions to the football program. Over the last couple of days there has been discussion about helping support Doug's family during this very difficult time. Neil Lumsden, Doug's former teammate and close friend has been in contact with Doug's family and has been helping deal with the grief of losing their father, brother, uncle and best friend. We will all stand together in support of the family and be there when they need us regardless of the scenario. At this time we ask that everyone give Doug's family time to grieve and deal with necessary arrangements and manage Doug's personal affairs. As soon as funeral arrangements / Celebration of Life plans are finalized we will send out a notice on the 1881 website and Facebook page. If anyone has any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me directly.

Thank you,

Tom Casagrande

Chairman, 1881