Doran had very particular ways of doing almost everything: always all-in, always full-tilt. Exhibition-oriented research was among the activities he loved most in life, and Doran could become so set on packing as much into a day as possible that niceties like eating, finding a little shade during hottest hours, and slowing down to take a couple extra breaths were low priorities. Doran's exhilaration was infectious, as was the sheer joy he took in simply being in Africa, with friends made at every turn. The laughing leitmotif of his famously lame jokes accompanied Doran's eye for creative brilliance in the most mundane of circumstances—witness an extensive collection he acquired for the Fowler of hand-inscribed Ghanaian truck mud-flaps bearing pithy prose.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I took several trips with Doran to choose works for the Fowler-organized exhibition A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal....