Douglas Bristol

1940 - 2021

Douglas Bristol
October 31, 1940 - May 5, 2021
Cary, North Carolina - Bristol, Douglas Walter, Sr.
Douglas Walter Bristol, Sr., passed away on May 5, 2021 at the age of 80. He was born on Halloween in 1940 in Rochester, NY to Thomas and Agnes Bristol. In 1965, he married Marie Mahoney Bristol. They raised two sons, Douglas and David. He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Syracuse University in 1969. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University, he became a Chemistry Professor at North Dakota State University, where he began to research toxicology—the harmful effects of chemicals on people, animals, and the environment. In 1979, he began working at the Food and Drug Administration in Washington, D.C., and in 1981, he took a position at the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences in the Research Triangle Park, where he worked until his retirement in 2008.
Doug had many passions. The foremost was jazz, and he played trombone with several groups including the Triangle Brass Band. He loved ocean sailing so much he volunteered, at 74, for a crew that sailed from Hawaii to Southern California. His idea of a perfect time was sailing his yacht, Now Voyager, with his life partner Pattie on a Neuse Sailing Club excursion. Doug took pleasure in talking with a broad range of people about ideas, politics, and sports—lifelong Yankees fan. He was a loyal friend. He belonged to the same poker group for 27 years. He believed in equality and joined his son Doug, Jr. at a protest in Mississippi against an anti-LGBTQ law. He loved to dance, and with Pattie, he found a prize-winning dance partner. Finally, he loved his family and travelled around the world to see them.
Doug was preceded in death by his father, Tom, and his mother, Agnes. He is survived by his sons Douglas and David, his life partner Pattie, his brothers Tom, Pat, and Mike, his sisters Gail and Mary, and several cousins, nieces, and nephews. Donations in his name may be sent to WUNC-FM, P.O. Box 19875, Durham, NC 27707-0025.