Donald Douglas Dowling Jr.

Born Oct. 19, 1943, in Laconia, New Hampshire, to Donald Douglas Sr. and Annie Smith Dowling, Don filled his life with learning, adventure, curiosity, and community.

Raised first in New England and later on the San Francisco peninsula, Don’s early years reflected the broad horizons he would seek for the rest of his life. A lifelong lover of adventure, his youth was spent in the country, camping, helping on the family farm, cruising on motorcycles, and street racing in California.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in English Education from SUNY New Paltz, a master’s degree in Education, and a Superintendent’s License from SUNY Brockport. A gifted teacher, he spent his career inspiring students as a secondary English educator in Wappingers Falls and Ripley, retiring from Ripley in 2003.

A believer in the value of service, Don was a proud member of the Westfield/Mayville Rotary and served as District 7090 Assistant Governor from 2007-2010. He was also an active participant with a leading voice in the Writer’s Group at the Sinclairville Library, and a committed member and former Board President of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Northern Chautauqua in Fredonia.

Don lived widely and well. He was happiest outdoors and in motion: riding his motorcycle with Audrey on the back, camping across the United States and Canada, hiking, sailing, fishing, and canoeing. A consummate storyteller and devotee of the art of tall tales and campfire stories, he was also the author of The Gold of Vanishing Creek, a Western novel shaped by his deep affection for the landscapes of the American West and the tales of the frontier. An insatiable reader, he often had a Louis L’amore novel close at hand.

After meeting Audrey (Kay) and marrying in New Paltz in 1973, the couple began their life together along the Hudson River before heading westward across New York State. They embraced the Back to the Land movement on 82 acres outside Westfield, where Don balanced teaching with homesteading. Later, he and Audrey left the cabin they built to establish Portage Hill Art Gallery. They operated the gallery together for 43 years, where Don loved to greet guests in warm conversation. In retirement, he mastered the craft of picture framing.

For more than half a century, Don and Audrey explored the country together–on motorcycles, in campers, in tents, with their boys in tow, and later just the two of them. They roamed south in the springtime, west in the fall, with New England and eastern Canada as one of their preferred havens, collecting memories and stories that grew richer with every mile.

Of all the roles Don held, none mattered to him more than that of devoted husband, father, and grandfather.

Those who knew Don will remember his steady gentleness, dry and incisive wit, thoughtful intelligence, and a kindness that expressed itself not through grand gestures, but through the constancy of how he lived.

Don is survived by his loving wife, Audrey Kay Dowling, whom he married April 14, 1973; his three sons, Forrest Blake (Sarah Hewitt) Dowling of Madison, WI, Joseph Campbell (Rachel Jones) Dowling of Rochester, NY, and Steven E. Smyth of Matawan, NJ; his grandson, Brennan Patrick Dowling, son of Joe; his brother, Thomas Campbell Dowling of Adams Center, NY; and his beloved Sunny, a Standard Poodle, of Mayville, NY. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by mother and father-in-law, Edmund Francis and Audrey Owen Kay.

He will be deeply missed.

The family will receive friends from 4-7 PM on Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, at the Freay Funeral Home in Mayville at 139 S. Erie St. A Celebration of Life and Joy will be held at a later date at the UUCNC in Fredonia, NY and will be announced.

Memorial donations can be made to Chautauqua Hospice and Palliative Care at 20 W. Fairmount Ave, Lakewood, NY, 14750, the Patterson Library at 40 S. Portage St, Westfield, NY 14787, or the North Lake Rescue Squad at PO Box 2, Mayville, NY 14757.

To leave a remembrance or to post condolences to the family, please visit freayfuneralhome.com