This memorial was written by Jeffrey Padden, founder of PPA. Doug Drake’s obituary and celebration of life information can be found here.
Doug was a terrific guy. I knew him through several phases of his professional life. When I served in the Michigan House of Representatives, he was our in-house expert on tax and revenue policy and in many other areas. He then took on a broader role as director of the Speaker’s research staff. Doug became director of the Office of Revenue and Tax Analysis in the Michigan Department of Management and Budget in 1985. He served in a variety of high-level consulting and teaching roles over the following years.
We were closest during our years together at PPA, where he did some truly outstanding work. PPA was very fortunate to have a leader of Doug’s caliber as part of our team. He consistently acted with the highest level of integrity in all his work. In one revealing case, PPA had been retained by opponents to analyze the likely impact of a highly controversial and far-reaching policy proposal, and Doug took the lead in that work. When his draft report was completed, I asked Doug to read it again while pretending that the advocates—rather that the opponents—were our clients and to tell me what he would change. After his review, Doug reported that he would not change a word. He had conducted a thorough and unbiased analysis, and when released the report withstood very close scrutiny by all parties. Doug’s work could always be trusted.
In addition to the terrific work he did for PPA’s clients, he was also a very important mentor to some of our younger staff at PPA who benefited enormously from his decades of experience and profound insight. Everyone he touched benefited from knowing him.
