Douglas Donald Cockrell

CARY NC - Memorial service for Douglas Donald Cockrell of Cary, North Carolina will be held 2:00 p.m. Monday, January 9, 2012 at Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel. The family will receive friends following the service at the funeral home. Douglas Donald Cockrell, 57, died Tuesday, January 3, 2012, at WakeMed Cary Hospital, Cary, N.C. Born September 4, 1954, he was the son of Phyllis Langdon Cockrell Gill and the late Donald Benjamin Cockrell. Doug started taking college courses during high school and graduated from Dreher High School in Columbia. He obtained a BS degree in computer science, Magna Cum Laude, from the University of South Carolina where he was a systems programmer. In 1981, Doug was hired by SAS Institute Inc. to design and develop the SAS macro facility. Over the course of his career at SAS Institute, he led the IBM mainframe development eventually becoming the Senior R&D Director for Host Systems. Mr. Cockrell led both the product development and R&D infrastructure for mainframe, UNIX, and Windows development. Before retiring from SAS Institute in 2004, Douglas held the title of R&D Architect, working on planning future development for Internet-based computing environments. Doug's love for working on cars began before he was old enough to drive. He liked to drag race, and for a time after he retired, worked at an automobile high performance tuning shop. He also volunteered repairing cars for Wheels4Hope. Wheels4Hope is a non-profit, faith-based car donation program that recycles cars to provide affordable, reliable transportation to low-wage families and individuals. Doug is survived by his mother, Phyllis Gill, brother, Steven Langdon Cockrell, of Columbia; aunts, Dorothy Langdon King of Monroe, N.C., Sara Langdon (Hubert) Clinard of Stanley, N.C., Marian Cockrell Brunson (Lindsey) of Harrisburg, PA., and numerous first and second cousins. He was predeceased by his father, Donald Cockrell, and brother, Kenneth Benjamin Cockrell. The family wishes to thank Robin Saunders and the staff at WakeMed of Cary, N.C. Memorial may be made in honor of Doug to Wheels4Hope, 929 S Saunders Street, Raleigh NC 27603 (http://www.wheels4hope.org) or Donate Life SC Organization, 4200 E North Street #22, Greenville SC 29615-2437.