Douglas Cook Delano

Douglas Cook Delano, 76, of Leland, North Carolina, passed away January 6, 2024, in the Hospice House of Brunswick, Bolivia, North Carolina. After surviving cancer for twenty years, he had his wife by his side in his last days of Alzheimer’s. He was born November 1, 1947, in Worcester, Mass., and grew up in Bristol, CT where he graduated from Bristol Eastern H.S.in 1965. He met his wife, Billie Lesher Delano, of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania in 1968 in college at Drexel Institute of Technology and they married on October 3, 1970, in Bristol, CT.

Doug is predeceased in death by his parents John and Laura (Cook) Delano. He is survived by his wife Billie of 53 years of marriage, their daughter Darcy Riley (Christopher) Houston, TX, their daughter Jillian Delano, Petaluma, CA,  granddaughters Sydney, Ava and Alessandra, his brother Steven Delano (Aileen), Marlborough, CT, brother Thomas Delano, Farmington, CT., numerous cousins, nephews, and nieces.

He graduated with a B.S. from Drexel University, an MPA degree from University of Hartford, served in the National Guard, then volunteered for no salary to be the first Assistant Town Manager of Avon, CT. Following that position he was Town Mgr. of Windsor, VT., Town Mgr. of Breckenridge, CO (where he hired Jack Nicklaus to develop a municipal golf course), and Town Mgr. of Palm Beach, FL.

His professional career continued in managing the development of large primary home and active adult communities as Vice Pres./General Mgr., Heritage Development Group, Southbury, CT, V.P./Project Mgr., Arvida/St. Joe Company, Tallahassee, FL, V.P./Sr. Project Mgr., WCI, Coral Springs, FL, and V.P. of Operations, Newland Communities, Herndon, VA.

Doug received the Management Innovation Award, International City Management Association, also memberships in The Urban Land Institute (ULI), National Assn. of Home Builders (NAHB), International Conference of Shopping Centers (ICSC), MD and VA homebuilder associations, and Certified Green Professional (CGP) National Assn. of Home Builders. He enjoyed skiing, golfing, sailing/boating.

A Celebration of Life will be held February 19th. at 2:00 in the Cutlar building, Brunswick Forest, 11220 East Cutler Crossing, Suite #204 Leland North Carolina, and the burial will be in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. In lieu of flowers please donate to https://lifecare.org, https://dementianc.org, https://donate.cancer.org.