Douglas C. Hearn, nicknamed Ducky by his three sisters, was born in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., in 1906, the second of four children of Clint Calvin Hearn, a West Point-educated Army officer from Texas, and Laura Wright Overaker of Cincinnati. He grew up on Army bases in the United States and abroad, spending most of his time in Washington, D.C., and the Philippines. He attended military school in New York State.
At Princeton, he majored in engineering and played football. He was a member of Campus Club and roomed with Bill Boyce.
Douglas left Princeton before graduating and served in the Navy. He worked for Goodyear in Akron, Ohio, around 1930, and in odd jobs while developing inventions, including an idea for windshield wipers.
In 1925 he married Catherine “Cassie” Rowell, the daughter of an Army general. They had two sons, Douglas C. Hearn Jr. and Nelson Strobridge Hearn, who died as a child. The marriage ended in divorce. Douglas died in California in 1945 during a gall bladder operation. His son Douglas Jr. died in 2004. He is survived by a grandson (whereabouts unknown) and an extended family, including a great nephew, Michael R. Corbett ’73.
(This memorial was posted online Sept. 4, 2009)