Wasn't he really just one of the very last of that old traditional school of club owners? Moderately successful provincial businessmen wanting to boost their stock on their patch by owning the local football club?
Doug, Swales, even Louis Edwards - a travel agent, a television salesman and a butcher - that type, of which Doug was the last.
Look at the sort of people who own top flight football clubs nowadays, and it is totally different. It is just that, for us, Doug held on for ages.
I guess the only one of the traditional big clubs in that sort of ownership now is Everton, and even Bill Kenwright is a bit more lah di dah West End than provincial, truth be told.