Douglas Eugene Cochran
Douglas Eugene Cochran
Douglas Eugene Cochran passed peacefully from this life at the age of 93 in Sun Valley, ID, on Aug. 13th, 2025, surrounded by his loving wife of 31 years and his family. Doug was born on April 3, 1932, in Winchester, VA, to the late Clayton John Cochran and Clarise Cochran. He graduated from Hanley High School and then received his BS in Accounting from Strayer College in Washington, DC. Upon graduation, he enlisted in the Army and served two years in the Field Artillery during the Korean War in Germany.
After he returned to Winchester, he was hired by Winchester Knitting Mills, which is now Burlington Industries, as a Management Trainee. After 2 years in that position, he decided he really wasn’t interested in textiles. He joined the McDonough Corporation, a newly formed conglomerate, in Parkersburg, WV in 1956 as a Senior Accountant Over the years with McDonough, he served as Controller of Vang Industries in Pittsburgh (1958), Iron City-Ohio River Company (1959), and Houston Shell and Concrete (1961), where he built a cement plant, Gulf Coast Portland Cement. He passed the CPA Exam on the first seating in 1964. In 1965, he was promoted to be the Controller for all of McDonough. He assisted with the acquisition of Endicott Johnson Corporation and was appointed Vice President of Finance in 1971. In 1974, he was elected President and CEO of the company. He took McDonough on the NY Stock exchange in 1976. In 1981, the McDonough Corporation was sold to Hanson Trust, PLC in London, England and Doug became a Group Chairman of the Hanson Building Products Division and acquired or reorganized 26 companies over the last 14 years of his career, including Jacuzzi and Ames Garden Tools. He loved the game of negotiating! He retired in 1995.
He married the love of his life in 1994 and he and Brownell retired to Hilton Head, SC where they played golf and enjoyed the “Southern Life”. They traveled extensively and spent months cruising the oceans of the world. Doug started the Investment Club at Colleton River, where they lived.
They purchased a summer home in Sun Valley, ID, in 2002 and have spent all of their summers since then in Idaho. In 2005, after serious consideration, they decided to flee the bugs and humidity of South Carolina and move to Lake Las Vegas, which was an excellent decision on their part.
Doug loved life. He worked hard and played hard. He loved skiing, gardening, hunting, golf, shooting and Western or War movies. He relished being a prankster. Everyone around him got caught up in his enthusiasm. When he entered the room, everyone knew he was there. He was generous and kind to everyone he met. No one was a stranger to Doug. Brownell told him she was going to get him a retirement job as a Walmart greeter! He was incredibly loved by so many, and he will be truly missed.
Doug was preceded in death by his son, Bradley Scott Cochran, his parents and brothers, Clayton John Cochran, Jr. and Donald Meryl Cochran and his first wife, Constance Cochran. He is survived by his wife, Brownell Clikeman Cochran, his son, Brian Scott Cochran, his stepsons, Spencer Brownell Ross and his husband Phil and Samuel B. Ross III and his wife, Melissa, and their four children, Braeden, Owen, Christian and Ivy. The family would like to thank Crizzy and Susie, his caregivers, and Hospice and Palliative Care of the Wood River Valley for taking such good care of him.
A “Celebration of Life” will be held at a later date in Lake Las Vegas.
In lieu of flowers, any gifts may be made to The Parkersburg Area Community Foundation Douglas E. Cochran Scholarship Fund, or the Community Foundation of the Northern Shenandoah Valley Douglas E. Cochran Youth Fund, or the Brownell C. and Douglas E. Cochran Scholarship Fund at Conquer Paralysis Now.