Donald Steven Feeley's Obituary
Donald “Doc” Steven Feeley, the man, the myth, the legend, was born on May 4th, 1950 in Oakland, California to Betty and Donald H. Feeley. Despite Betty being no more than 5ft tall, she gave birth to a man whose presence would grow to be louder than the screams of fans at a Rolling Stones concert.
As Donald grew up, he grew into muscles that would make any man want to work out on leg day. His calf muscles alone could be spotted from miles away…seriously, they were incredible. He had a natural year long tan that most people have to pay for nowadays. And he had a face that even Pitt would be jealous of. But more importantly, as he grew up, his unique personality and natural charisma grew to be even bigger and more spectacular, and he grew into a man that people couldn’t help but like and want to be friends with.
A natural born athlete, he was a star baseball player and enjoyed surfing and could often be found outdoors in the sun either catching his waves off of the coast of Santa Cruz or appreciating nature near the family cabin near Pinecrest, California. A true man of nature, there was no bush he wouldn’t pee on and no bear he feared, and anyone with him in the great outdoors felt safe and assured in his outdoor capabilities.
He was an entertaining man full of wild creativity and imagination and he stole the spotlight from any room he walked into. His laughter could be heard continents away, and it was as contagious as he was entertaining. You just couldn’t help but like him and want to be friends with him. And when he wasn’t busy being loved and adored by beautiful women, he found his place within music…where coincidentally, he found even more adoration by beautiful women.
As a young adult, women would soon realize they had to share Donald’s heart with his true passion; his music. He was a very gifted musician who could create rhythm and music out of anything. There was no instrument he didn’t love, but his specialty was his talent for the conga drums, or as he called his set of four congas, his “tubs”. When he played the congas, his rhythm echoed so loudly, it was as if a beautiful thunderstorm were approaching. Donald played with so much passion and enthusiasm, not even Pamela Anderson on episodes of Baywatch could distract him, though I know he loved her too.
Being the extraordinarily talented musician Donald was, he got his first break in music playing the congas for Mary Wells, though if he were here now, he would be thankful but shy away from this accomplishment seeing as her music was on the tame side for this wild rocker. He wanted to listen to and to play music that was as rock ‘n roll and as crazy as he was, and the louder the better! He could often be found blasting Ozzy as loud as he possibly could while slapping his hands to the rhythm of the music and singing along. Over the years, he continued to play with various famous and non famous rock musicians and became even more of the incredible musician everyone who knew him, knew him to be.
But along with his endless list of talents and passions, he had an equal amount of fun cooking in the kitchen for his family and friends using his “ingredaments”. His cooking would put anyone on MasterChef to shame, and his cooking often kept people coming back for more. He could even make leftovers taste fabulous. The BBQ was his best friend on Saturday evenings, and every weekend there was always a big brunch followed by watching our favorite cartoons, though we also caught him watching our favorite cartoons by himself on several occasions, he would never admit to this…but we knew the truth! He was a man who would sneak us dessert even when we hadn’t eaten all of our dinner. He was a man who would save us when we were in trouble with Grandma. He would bring us candy from the store to surprise us. He taught us how to ride bikes and when he put our helmets on our heads, you never knew if the strap would pinch your neck or not, and if it did you were told to “cool your jets”. He taught us how to swim and played in the water with us with his fake shark fin arms. He scared us with his version of “the clawwwww”. He was our rock ‘n roll dad who never followed rhythms, he fuckin’ created them!
On November 8th, 2015 at 11:20 am, in his true rock star fashion, he died too soon at the age of 65. He was as muscular and tan as ever with no wrinkles or grey hair in sight, and he looked no more than 45, so the ladies in the spirit realm are sure to have some eye candy. He went out with a bang, to the music of Ozzy Osbourne and the Rolling Stones, and with beautiful women by his side telling him how loved he was. We hope that he comes back for visits often, but in the meantime we’ll be hearing his conga drums and rhythm everywhere we go.
We are all so grateful to have known such a loving, kind, funny, wild and free spirited man, and all of his characteristics and his amazing calf muscles will live on in his daughters, Molly Colleen Feeley and Anna Jean Feeley. We invite everyone who knew Donald to raise a glass to this fantastic man who brought so much excitement into our lives.
If he were here now, he would want us all to share and to hold on to the many good memories we have of him, to eat his favorite Snickers bar, and to be as equally mad as he would have been that the Raiders lost on the day he died. Here’s to Donald Steven Feeley, our man, our myth, our legend: Cheers.
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