Douglas Clark Francis Kenney (December 10, 1946 – August 27, 1980) was an American comedy writer of magazine, novels, radio, TV and film who co-founded the magazine National Lampoon in 1970. Kenney edited the magazine and wrote much of its early material. He went on to write, produce and perform in the influential comedies Animal House and Caddyshack before his sudden death at the age of 33. Early life Douglas Clark Francis Kenney was born in West Palm Beach, Florida to Estelle "Stephanie" (Karch) and Daniel Harold "Harry" Kenney, both originally from Massachusetts. His paternal grandparents, Daniel J. Kenney and Eleanor Agnes (Noonan), were of Irish origin. His maternal grandparents, Anthony Karczewski and Victoria Lesniak, were Polish. He was named for General Douglas MacArthur. His family moved to Mentor, Ohio, in the early 1950s, before settling in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Kenney lived in Chagrin Falls from 1958 to 1964 and attended Gilmour Academy, a Catholic prep high school for boys in nearby Gates Mills, Ohio. He was married to Alexandra Appleton Garcia-Mata. Career National Lampoon While at Harvard University, Kenney was a member of the Signet Society, president of the Spee Club and editor of The Harvard Lampoon. Kenney frequently collaborated with Henry Beard and the two wrote the short novel Bored of the Rings, which was published in 1969. Kenney graduated in 1968. Soon after, he, Beard and fellow Harvard alumnus Robert Hoffman began work on founding the humor magazine National Lampoon. Kenney was one of the originating forces of what became known during the 1970s as the "new wave" of comedy: a dark, irreverent style of humor that Kenney used as the basis for the magazine. Kenney was editor-in-chief from 1970 to 1972, senior editor from 1973 to 1974 and editor from 1975 to 1976. Thomas Carney, writing in New Times, traced the history and style of the National Lampoon and the impact it had on comedy's new wave. "The National Lampoon," Carney wrote, "was the first full-blown appearance of non-Jewish humor in years -- not anti-Semitic, just non-Jewish. Its roots were W.A.S.P. and Irish Catholic, with a weird strain of Canadian detachment. . . . This was not Jewish street-smart humor as a defense mechanism; this was slash-and-burn stuff that alternated in pitch but moved very much on the offensive. It was always disrespect everything, mostly yourself, a sort of reverse deism." Kenney