My best friend died Oct. 1. When others, so many others, heard the news about Tim Doughtie, how many said the same thing?

"My best friend." I never had the pleasure of such a friendship until I met Tim. Such a gift he had. Such a gift he shared. With all his best friends. With all of us.

As many of you know, Tim liked to give friends nicknames. Mine is “Schnitz.” Letters from Tim to our home were addresses to “Mr. And Mrs. Schnitz.” Our kids were called “the little Schnitzes.” Few, however, ever knew the origin of “Schnitz.”
 
Over 20 years ago, while at lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant, we were trying to think up a project we could do together. I had written the news release  for “Kitty Kwik Sand” and the story was picked up by several publications. We were on a roll and we made a great creative team. Tim’s job would be think up these great ideas. My job was to write them down, as soon I stopped laughing, because I had a computer.
 
Tim decided what the island really needed was another magazine. At the time, Hilton Head had a little over 11,000 residents and about five or six monthly publications. Since the market was a bit over-saturated, our magazine would have to be quite different.
 
Since we were both “ad guys,” and since advertising is the lifeblood of any magazine, our first great idea was to create a series of full page advertisements, approach a prospective advertiser, and threaten to run the ad, which would harm, if not ruin the advertiser’s’ business, unless we were paid $1,000.
 
We also knew high circulation was a must and we had to do a better job than the competition. So we decided we would fill our new magazine with coupons for stuff. These would not be just any coupons, like for dog food. These would be coupons for cars. The copy was to read something like, “THIS COUPON GOOD FOR ONE FREE CAR.” Our instructions to readers suggested they take the coupon to a car dealer of their choice, ask a salesman for the keys to a car, give him the coupon and just drive away. We did caution readers not to tell anyone, especially the police, where they got the coupon. That would be our little secret.
 
Of course, the new publication had to have a catchy name, something that really said “Hilton Head,” something semi-tropical. Tim, as the publisher, came up the perfect title. I as the editor, had to agree. We would call it Der Schnitzel! And logically (Tim’s logic), as editor, I would be known as “The Schnitz.”