My childhood played a very significant role in what I am today”.
UCU’s acting DVC for Development and external Relations, Doug Fountain has had the highs and the lows of both a career and family life. He says had it not been for his childhood, he does not think he would have managed.

He started acting as DVC last year when John Senyonyi was appointed VC in September.
The soft spoken and often straight forward man worked at a number of US corporations before he came to Uganda as Prof Stephen Noll’s advisor on health related matters.
“I have been In Uganda for six and half years and in that time I have worked at four positions, many of these often crossed into others just like what I am doing right now,” said Fountain.
Before he took over the acting role he was and still is UCU’s Director for planning, a position he took on after leaving Health Sciences, a department he had helped found in 2004.
Before coming to Africa, Fountain had a blissful career in the US, he got his first job long before he finished his Bachelor degree, got married to the first woman he met in Class, JoEllyn, and had very many children, only one of whom is biological, Elisa.
The first time Fountain came to Africa was on a Truro Church mission to develop small group ministry at Mpwapwa in Tanzania. This trip, however, coincided with the plans of his then employer, The Institute for Environmental Innovation, in Tulsa, Oklahoma where Fountain was Executive Director to engage in Carbon Credit trade with Tanzania.
“The area I was in was so remote, it had a few telephones but that did not deter us, in the begining I lived in the US and came to Mpwapwa occasionally but I learnt to love the place started thinking of settling here,” Fountain explains. Coming to Tanzania was a complete turnaround.
“The shift from health where by the way I had a reputation was nothing short of the hand of God,” said Fountain.
His fascination for Uganda also started around that time.
“In 2003 I sat in the same conference with the Nolls, I asked them about Uganda and all they told me was UCU. That is how I came to know about Mukono.”
The problem then was the Episcopal Church in the US. There were not many churches for Americans to attach themselves too, The Fountains then moved to England and became the first Americans to go to Mission under the CMS.
Named after World War Two hero, Douglas McArthur, Fountain was born in 1965 and is the fourth child in a family of four. He is eleven years younger than the sibling he follows.
“Being that young and with no other siblings at home was tough. It is unfortunate that my mother got so sick and never recovered until she died in 1997.
Her condition helped to strengthen the bond among the three and strained the family financially and yet Fountain still clung to God.
“About that time my siblings were young adults all starting out in life, they had their separate lives and we don’t really have that culture of helping it is individualistic, but that was okay the bond I developed with my father was so strong that in 2009 at the age of 81 he remarried and I had the honour of being his best-man.
“I went to Whitman College and did a double major in chemistry and biology, but things did not work out. So I moved to the University of Oregon where I did a Political Science and Economics double major and also met JoElly on my first day in class.” 
Fountain also added that four month later they were engaged and got married right after university; they had their first and only child seven years after.
Their first challenge as a couple was deciding what university to attend for post graduate studies.
“JoElly was a better student so she had more university admissions and options, but I am glad that we eventually agreed to both move to the University of North Carolina on the east coast. We drove over 5,000 kilometres, for a week to get there, that was when things started moving and my life got better,” said Fountain. 
Fountain came to know the lord in 1982, mostly through the influence of his parents who were part of the Charismatic Renewal movement.
He adds that being a believer came with its challenges.
“About that time I paid more attention to my work and making money I even begun doubting some of the things I believed in but I am glad that I did not get lost. In 1998 just before the Tanzania visit and I came back very powerfully and I have not looked back since.” He said.

Coming to Africa and leaving all I had held dear was hard.
“I started off life with nothing, having to spend a $1 per  day on food in college was tough. Leaving behind all I had worked for to become a missionary in a different culture and still be able to perform is also hard, but I am happy that I have managed so far,” he said.   
“ What I see is that God has taken me on a path and everything that I have done has equipped me for what I am doing now, it’s nothing short of God’s hand.”
Fountain has published many peer reviewed articles, many of which are available online free to download, he has prepared a number of papers in selected technical matters and presented at leading conferences.