Douglas B. Stuart

On September 1st, our beloved brother, friend, and uncle "Bugs" died peacefully in his sleep and began a new journey after a long battle with illness and painful disability. Doug was 55 years old.

Douglas Bruce Stuart came into this world on July 3rd, 1960 in Glendive Montana, the son of Ella Renk and Delbert Eugene Stuart. After finishing high school at Dawson County High School in 1978, he moved to Billings to attend Rocky Mountain College to pursue a liberal arts degree. Doug spent some time in Venezuela going to school at the University of Madrid and taught English in Spanish. For several years, Doug worked in the travel industry where he helped meet the travel plans of many loyal clients. While his career as a travel agent took him to many ports of call including Hawaii, England, South America, and Senegal, Doug's real passion in life was music. Whether it was opera, Rock and Roll, show tunes, contemporary Christian, hymns, or whatever, Doug's love for music was evident in his heart-felt performances. In his younger years, Doug was involved in many productions with Billings Studio Theatre and the Calamity Jane Players. Until recent years, Doug was active in his church - 1st Presbyterian - where he served as a pianist and a vocalist, performing music for the services. His music was a priceless gift that he gave freely to all of us and our holiday sing-alongs will not be the same without him. Doug was a generous person and knew the meaning of unconditional love, forgiveness, charity, empathy, and compassion.

Doug was preceded in death by his maternal and paternal grandparents; his father, Delbert E. Stuart Sr.; his mother, Ella Classen; his sisters Anne Marie Entzel and Sharon Lee Wing; his brother, Delbert (Sonny) E. Stuart Jr.; his great, great nephew, Carter Jeffrey Powell; and his first life partner, Rodney Kelnhofer.

Doug is survived by his second life partner, Monte Gress of Billings; sisters, Marion Perrin and husband Lee of Custer, Pat Lammers and her husband Denny of Osceola Iowa; brothers Greg Stuart and his wife Terry, Michael Stuart and his wife Tanya of Billings; his aunts, Irene Renk of Bellevue Washington and Arlene Bender and her husband LeRoy of Washburn North Dakota; friends that were family, little sister Julie Kelnhofer, Pat and Michele Schindele and their daughters Bree and Noelle; and many many nieces and nephews, grand nieces and nephews, cousins, friends, church family, and his ‘fur-children' standard poodles Tucker, Sophie, and Emma.

Cremation has taken place. Memorial Service will be held at the First Presbyterian Church of Billings on Tuesday, September 8th at 11:00 am. The family requests that in lieu of memorials, please make a donation to the Billings Animal Shelter at 1735 Monad Rd, Billings, MT 59101 in his name.