A legend in our fandom has finally passed away after a long, difficult battle with emphysema.
Ask anyone, “When did you first discover Doug Winger?” and you’ll get a wide range of responses depending on their taste in subject matter, but you’ll almost never hear someone say, “Doug Winger who?”
His influence was so wide and deep there was even a term named after him - “Wingerized” - to describe a character who’s been ahem… enhanced… in certain ways - a term that Doug gleefully used himself.

Before I joining this community I remember browsing through a furry FTP site on the best connection a 28.8 modem running AOL could muster.
I’d methodically browse through the artists’ directories, looking for artwork of cute, busty catgirls. Then I made my way to the D section and came across a folder called Doug Winger.
What I saw in there absolutely floored me, to say the least. I felt a bizarre blend of shock, horror and arousal.
“Holy crap WTF am I looking at!?”
“… Should I go back and look at it again!? I dunno...”
“Oh wow… Some of this stuff is weird but the sheer creativity appeals to me…”
“Haha, this guy has a terrific sense of humor…”
“Oh gee, that’s actually kinda hot…”
“Maybe I should try drawing this kinda stuff too…”

(I found out later that my reaction to Doug’s work was hardly atypical.)

Later I discovered where he posted regularly - and that I could actually contact him. So my typical starstruck, drooling fanboy self reached out.
Then I found out quickly that if Doug liked an idea you floated by him, it got drawn.

I can’t describe in words how thrilling it was to check my email in the morning, see the progress bar take a bit longer than usual, only to find a new message from Doug Winger with a file attachment icon next to the title.
I’d wait (sometimes several minutes) before opening it, heart pounding in my chest, hands trembling with anticipation, steeling myself to prepare for the sheer awesomeness I was about to see.
I’d even do a silly little ritual that I continue to this day when receiving any kind of gift art or commission: I’d save the attachment and arrange a browser window so it was offscreen, drop the file into it, then slowwwly drag the full image into view until there it was in all of its glory.
Doug’s responses always exceeded my wildest expectations. They'd reduce me into a spasming, squealing, giggling mess for several minutes.
Once I'd gotten my bearings back I'd read the textual part of his response which could vary from Steve Jobs-like single sentence terseness to paragraphs of eloquence - but always containing perceptive, witty humor.

I tried to reciprocate with fan art of my own although he was far more skilled than I… I suppose feeding him ideas he loved was what made him happy.
The fact he gave a crappy newbie artist like me the time of day, much less GIFT ART - absolutely floored me. Say what you want about the man, he was most generous.

Now hyper art is incredibly common in the fandom, but Doug was a pioneer, a trailblazer for this sort of thing. He can be imitated but never truly replaced.

We will miss you but never forget you, Sir Doug. /salute!

My tribute to Doug - "Winger's Winter"
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12278755/ (nsfw)

Since jonesybunny shared the link to Doug’s “Sekrit Site” gallery, I’ll share it too:
http://furnication.bloobunni.com/