A celebration of the life of Douglas Edward Bott will be held 4-6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 4, at the Elks Lodge.
Douglas Bott
Calling hours at Prewitt Funeral Home will be 5-7 p.m. Friday.
Doug died suddenly July 30 at Sitka Community Hospital. He was 43.
A resident of Sitka for 25 years, Doug was born Sept. 15, 1972, in Torrance, Calif., and grew up in New Richland, Minn., and Northwood, Iowa.
After graduating from Northwood-Kensett High School, he moved to Sitka in the fall of 1991 to attend Sheldon Jackson College.
Seduced by the Alaskan outdoors, Doug worked as a commercial fisherman, construction worker, a certified marine mechanic, and a bartender.
For the past five years, after receiving a certificate from the University of Alaska in non-destructive testing technology, he worked on the North Slope as an NDT technician for Kakivik Asset Management.
Doug, a gentle giant, was a lifelong outdoorsman from birth. He spent his childhood outdoors, starting at age 3 fishing alone in his own tethered boat, wreaking havoc on any sunfish within 50 feet of the dock.
He hunted and fished avidly through childhood, running a trap line before and after school; his friends remember the morning he was sprayed by a trapped skunk, and brought the odor with him to class, before the school banished him and his locker contents for deodorization.
In Sitka, Doug was never far from the outdoors, having achieved his dream of living on a trawler in Sitka harbor, and spending much of the year hunting and fishing with friends.
Douglas loved his life in Sitka with the hunting and fishing, the Sportsman’s Doug Botts Club, helping youth with safe hunting practices, and most of all exchanging stories with his friends.
Doug is survived by his parents, Ed and Donna Bott; brother Donald (Yi-Ju) Bott; sister DeeAnne (Robert) Shaw; and nephew Bobby.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Sitka Sportsman’s Association, 5211 Halibut Point Road, Sitka, Alaska 99835.
