Obituary for Douglas David Darnold
Douglas David Darnold, 73, of Dallas, died of heart failure on June 27, 2022, at T. Boone Pickens Hospice
Center.
Doug was born October 7, 1948, in Bartlesville, OK, to Henry Arthur Darnold, Sr., and Wanda (Lobaugh)
Darnold.
Doug was the youngest among a tight clan of cousins whose parents, as children, lost their father while
living in a sod house in Indian Territory. Led by Doug’s father, the oldest, the siblings stuck together,
married, became small-town merchants and church leaders, and sent their children to state universities.
Growing up in relative comfort during the 1950s and ‘60s, Doug remained in awe of his pioneering
forebearers.
With interests in drama, band, and French, Doug graduated from College High in 1967, when Bartlesville
was still a company town under Phillips Petroleum. At the University of Oklahoma, he was an honors
student in political science and participated in student senate and Model United Nations. Eager to
experience the big city of Dallas, he earned his juris doctor as a member of Delta Theta Phi at SMU’s
Dedman School of Law in 1973. A younger classmate, Michael Eagan, became Doug’s lifelong friend.
As a member of the Texas and Florida bars, Doug concentrated in oil and gas law, qualifying to argue
before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the D.C. Circuit, and in 1981 the U.S. Supreme Court. His
longest association was with in-house counsel at Sun Oil. During his professional years, he was a
member of Mensa International and the Dallas-Park Cities Philatelic Society.
In middle age, while continuing do to contract work for law firms, the I.R.S., and insurance carriers, Doug
found a second career as adjunct professor of business law and government at Dallas County’s Cedar
Valley College, where online reviews characterized him as funny, sympathetic to working students, and a
generous grader. At the Dallas Art Institute, he taught a course in intellectual property.
Doug was a lifelong Baptist, and he enjoyed televised sermons when he became unable to attend Sunday
mornings at First Baptist Church in downtown Dallas. For many years, Doug was a fixture at opening-
night receptions at Dallas art galleries – enjoying the wine, never buying, but following the progress of
both artists and gallery owners. Even when ill and weak, Doug was a serious reader in history,
biography, and politics. He listened to Frank Sinatra, Artie Shaw, and the Rolling Stones.
Photographs capture Doug sporting a tuxedo on sea cruises with his widowed mother; but for reasons
known only to those now deceased, he remained mostly outside the orbit of his immediate and extended
family. However, at his passing there was no doubt that Doug intensely loved and longed for family.
Douglas Darnold’s ashes will be interred in a family plot at Memorial Park Cemetery in his hometown.
Doug is predeceased by his parents; his brother Henry Arthur Darnold, Jr. and his son Brian; and sisters
Charlotte Darnold Boop and Judy Darnold Lindemuth. He is survived by brother-in-law Jere Lindemuth of
York, PA; first cousin Patricia “Patty” Darnold McAlister of Richardson, TX; first cousin Donna Darnold
Spence of Waco, TX; six surviving children of his siblings; and among many second cousins, David
Spence of Dallas.
Center.
Doug was born October 7, 1948, in Bartlesville, OK, to Henry Arthur Darnold, Sr., and Wanda (Lobaugh)
Darnold.
Doug was the youngest among a tight clan of cousins whose parents, as children, lost their father while
living in a sod house in Indian Territory. Led by Doug’s father, the oldest, the siblings stuck together,
married, became small-town merchants and church leaders, and sent their children to state universities.
Growing up in relative comfort during the 1950s and ‘60s, Doug remained in awe of his pioneering
forebearers.
With interests in drama, band, and French, Doug graduated from College High in 1967, when Bartlesville
was still a company town under Phillips Petroleum. At the University of Oklahoma, he was an honors
student in political science and participated in student senate and Model United Nations. Eager to
experience the big city of Dallas, he earned his juris doctor as a member of Delta Theta Phi at SMU’s
Dedman School of Law in 1973. A younger classmate, Michael Eagan, became Doug’s lifelong friend.
As a member of the Texas and Florida bars, Doug concentrated in oil and gas law, qualifying to argue
before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the D.C. Circuit, and in 1981 the U.S. Supreme Court. His
longest association was with in-house counsel at Sun Oil. During his professional years, he was a
member of Mensa International and the Dallas-Park Cities Philatelic Society.
In middle age, while continuing do to contract work for law firms, the I.R.S., and insurance carriers, Doug
found a second career as adjunct professor of business law and government at Dallas County’s Cedar
Valley College, where online reviews characterized him as funny, sympathetic to working students, and a
generous grader. At the Dallas Art Institute, he taught a course in intellectual property.
Doug was a lifelong Baptist, and he enjoyed televised sermons when he became unable to attend Sunday
mornings at First Baptist Church in downtown Dallas. For many years, Doug was a fixture at opening-
night receptions at Dallas art galleries – enjoying the wine, never buying, but following the progress of
both artists and gallery owners. Even when ill and weak, Doug was a serious reader in history,
biography, and politics. He listened to Frank Sinatra, Artie Shaw, and the Rolling Stones.
Photographs capture Doug sporting a tuxedo on sea cruises with his widowed mother; but for reasons
known only to those now deceased, he remained mostly outside the orbit of his immediate and extended
family. However, at his passing there was no doubt that Doug intensely loved and longed for family.
Douglas Darnold’s ashes will be interred in a family plot at Memorial Park Cemetery in his hometown.
Doug is predeceased by his parents; his brother Henry Arthur Darnold, Jr. and his son Brian; and sisters
Charlotte Darnold Boop and Judy Darnold Lindemuth. He is survived by brother-in-law Jere Lindemuth of
York, PA; first cousin Patricia “Patty” Darnold McAlister of Richardson, TX; first cousin Donna Darnold
Spence of Waco, TX; six surviving children of his siblings; and among many second cousins, David
Spence of Dallas.