- Date Of Birth: September 11, 1937
- Date Of Death: April 24, 2008
- State: Texas
September 11, 1937 – April 24, 2008
Claude Douglas Fulton, known as “Doug” for most of his life, was the third of three children born and raised in the small, rural community of Fruitdale, Alabama. Though his family was poor, and he was often stricken with respiratory illness as a child, he graduated Valedictorian from Fruitdale High School in 1955, and went to work for the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad. His employment was interrupted when he was drafted into the US Army in 1961. After two years of service to his country, primarily as a cook, he returned to the GM&O where he remained until 1964. After a brief stint with Southern Airways, he was hired as a steno clerk by the Canadian-Pacific Railroad, whom he served loyally for the next thirty-two years. Having worked his way into positions of increasing responsibility, he led the company’s sales effort in Mexico and a four-state region in the southern United States when he retired in 1965 he married Cheryl Ann Valentine in Mobile, Alabama. The two had their one daughter and only child, Lori Alane, in 1969. Four years later Doug moved his family to Houston, where they lived, in the same house, until their move to Boerne in Boerne, Doug and his wife enjoyed living next door to their daughter and son-in-law. Up until the last year of his life, Doug would amaze his family by performing complex mathematical operations rapidly in his head. He would sometimes recount his life experiences in vivid detail, including the names of the stories’ various protagonists – from as far back as childhood. He had a great sense of humor, and the family’s dinner time was often characterized by laughter. He was a hard worker and a frustrated golfer. He loved to feed and care for the deer whom he befriended upon his move to Boerne. For years he kept the family’s landscape impeccably groomed. He will be remembered as a kind, loving and loyal family died of respiratory failure on April 24 in a San Antonio hospital surrounded by friends and family. He is survived by his wife, Cheryl; his daughter Lori Figart, her husband Mark and their son, Ian Douglas, of Boerne; his sister, Mary Lou Walthall and her husband, Harold, of Austin; his nieces, Mauri Lynn Walthall and Lisa Kulawik, and Lisa’s son Matthew, of Austin; and numerous cousins.
