Longtime Athletic Staff Member and Coach Passes Away

NEW PALTZ, NY — Longtime SUNY New Paltz professor, coach and administrator Doug Sheppard passed away early Tuesday January 22nd at age 85. He coached the Hawks from 1961 until his retirement in 1994, and stopped a teaching classes a few years earlier.
Sheppard served as the golf coach for 32 years, in addition to coaching cross country, tennis and men’s basketball during his years at the college. He spent time as the director of the physical education department at New Paltz and also was the director of athletics for 10 years. In 1996, Sheppard was inducted in the New Paltz Hall of Fame for his significant contribution to the athletic department.
Friends will be received Feb. 1 from 7-9 p.m. at Copeland Funeral Home in New Paltz and a memorial mass will be celebrated 1 p.m. Feb. 2 at the Reformed Church of New Paltz.

To read the Daily Freeman write up by Dave Hines on Sheppard, click here.

Coach Sheppard with Hawk legend Joe Facciolli in 1966.