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Douglas Hines - Class of 1971

Submitted by Steven Hines - 1970 on 20/Jan/2026
173.169.104.36

  Douglas Hines - Class of 1971 - It is with deep regret I tell of the passing of my brother Douglas Hines back on October 30, 2022.

His love of music led him to Interlochen International Music Camp that he enjoyed so much that he spent his senior year there.
Doug was very involved with music at NFA. He played saxophone for the Stage and Marching bands. He was also accompanist for several choral groups.
He was accepted at Oberlin Ohio college as a piano major and voice minor. He came to realize he enjoyed singing and performing more than playing the piano and received his Bachelor's degree as a voice major and piano minor. He went Austria after a year at the Cleveland Institute of Music because he wanted to sing in the opera and thought he had a better chance where he considered the cultural center of the world. He was wrong. There are opera houses all over Austria, but every Austrian wants to perform in them and unless you are Pavarotti they only hire Austrians or there would be a riot.
So he went back to playing the piano as rehearsal pianist for the city opera at Graz. [Which is why I remember Arnold Schwarzenegger is from Graz.] He moved from opera house to opera house until he made his way to the Vienna City Opera House. Not the State Opera.
Along the way he met and married his lovely wife and has two amazing daughters. A favorite story is on the night before opening night a baritone decided he wanted more money. The conductor, knowing Doug had an incredible voice, asked him to fill in on stage while they talked. After about 30 seconds the baritone realized Doug could step in and do just as well as he could, and his career would be over, so he decided what he was being paid was adequate. LOL
Doug died from complications after several operations for cancer. We were in constant touch via Facebook and I thought he was in remission waiting to be told he did not have to worry about cancer reappearing. It was just him try to convince himself everything was going to be all right. He collapsed while giving a voice lesson and died a few days later without regaining consciousness. He was cremated and the family received the ashes in a biodegradable jar that was buried in a wooded area. So you could say he has become part of the Vienna Woods.

I am including a picture of him from about 1977, the way I remember him before he went off to Austria. Came back with his wife twice, both time they returned to discover she was pregnant. It was too difficult for the four of them to visit but we always joked that his wife Irmi did not want any more children.