Douglas Roy Quady

Douglas Roy Quady
Born July 14, 1942
Died February 13, 2026
Age 83

Doug was raised in the Camden neighborhood of northwest Minneapolis and maintained his roots there for his entire life. Proving that “there’s no place like home,” he happily never lived more than six miles from the house he grew up in with his parents Doug and Elsie, and his brothers Bruce and William. Proving the old adage of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he was secure and grounded with never changing his bank and post office locations for his entire life. As much as he embraced adventure in a variety of ways, he also grew deeply where he was planted, and that combination provided him with a wonderful balance.

Doug was devoted to Yvonne from the time they began dating in high school. Together they traversed the ups and downs of more than six decades of life. They raised their kids, Tammy and Tim, in their first house. Thirty-five years later, they were grandparents to Allison and Samantha, and they moved to townhome living. Throughout it all, they never stopped relishing in summers at the cabin up north and winters skiing out west.

Also through it all, Doug never stopped running his own business, which he built on his own and was immensely proud of. After growing up inside the family business of the Quady Candy Company, he set out to do his own thing in his twenties, coordinating an arc of multi-unit properties and a team of painters who kept them fresh and white over the decades. His briefcase went anywhere he went, even on vacations. When he moved to assisted living at age 80, the staff was comically stumped by the guy who moved an office and a running business into his apartment there. He continued working part time until age 82 when health issues forced him to finally, grudgingly, retire.

Dougie Roy, as much of the family calls him, moved through his life and this world with a compass of his own: he liked what he liked, and if he liked it, he immersed himself in it wholeheartedly.

Socializing was one of his great joys. Whether it was poker club started in the 1960s and still friends now, the cabin calendar of rotating weekend guests, council meetings at church, margarita Tuesdays in the townhome neighborhood, dinner at Meadow Ridge, or family events of any type… where there was a gathering, there was Doug. He never passed up a chance to join a group and while he was chronically late, he was well known as the last man standing, genuinely befuddled when he realized everyone else had left and lights were being turned off.

There were never enough sheds or shoreline at the cabin for his long parade of speed boats, pontoons, sailboats, windsurfers, skis, wakeboards, and inner tubes. He was highly fond of declaring, “The one who dies with the most toys wins!” After the sun went down there was often a game of Acquire, over which he would tell all participants, “If the board game doesn’t make you sweat through your shirt, you’re not playing it for real.”

There were never enough winter road trips to Colorado for weeks of downhill skiing. It was an unspoken law that when the van hit the high elevation passes, John Denver would go in the tape player and Doug would sing lyrics at the top his lungs: “Talk to God and listen to the casual reply, Rocky Mountain high!” and “The Rockies are living, they never will die!” To find him on the slopes, we only needed to scoot over to a black diamond run filled with the toughest moguls, and there he was, doing his running commentary as he checked off every mogul with fluid grace and with a rapid and loud rendition of, “Pow! Whoop! Boom! Yeah!” He never missed a beat, top to bottom of the run, and at the bottom he would holler, “Did ya see me? Wasn’t I great?!”

Doug was also committed to being a collector, dedicating large swathes of his living space to his train sets, model cars and boats, miniature holiday villages, and more. In a stronger version of dedicating his living space, he collected surgical hardware after various injuries and could light up a security checkpoint like a Christmas tree. Despite his crash and burn moments, he never let them stop him from getting back on the water or the slopes.

If you would like to do something in Doug’s memory, he would be delighted if you would do any of the following: 1– Gather with people you love and stay until someone starts turning off lights to signal it’s time to go home. 2– Sit by a lake to soak in a sunset and the late-night stars, then sleep well beyond sunrise and even toward noon. 3– Hit the slopes and ski with your whole heart. 4– Grow deeply where you are planted. 5– Drink coffee and eat candy bars with utter abandon, the same as he did.

If you would like to make a monetary donation in Doug’s honor, the family asks you to consider Meadow Ridge Senior Living, where Doug lived his final 3.5 years. We cannot overstate how much “The Meadow” has meant to all of us. They gave Doug a home built on community and belonging with his wonderful neighbors. The staff not only cared for his health and safety, they cared for him as a person and gave him their hearts. They were his doctors and nurses, his caregivers and cooks, and even his in-house hospice team through his final months, all inside of personal relationships Doug knew and trusted. What a gift.

Meadow Ridge Senior Living
7475 Country Club Drive
Golden Valley, MN 55427
meadowridgeseniorliving.com

Doug was preceded in death by:
Wife Yvonne Quady.
Parents Douglas and Elsie Falk Quady.

Survived by:
Daughter Tammy Quady, son Tim Quady, and daughter-in-law Lisa Franke Quady.
Granddaughters Allison (Andrew) Quady Stern and Samantha Quady.
Brothers Bruce Quady (Katherine Hedin) and William Quady.
Nieces Elizabeth Hedin (Matt Petersen) and Emily Hedin (Adam Thomas).
Several Falk cousins.
The extended Quady and Falk families.
“Co-parents,” Bill and Leah Franke. 

Services for Doug will take place on Thursday, June 25, 2026 at Nativity Lutheran Church, 3312 Silver Lake Rd NE, St. Anthony, MN 55418. Visitation at 10am, service at 11am, luncheon to follow.