Doug Pitt, businessman and founder of Care to Learn, is not an easy man to get to know.
“He is just not a real outgoing guy,” says long-time friend Matt Miller. “His dad is that way. Doug can be seen as distant, disinterested, stand-offish. That is more of a personality thing. … And then you couple that with his life experiences.”
Those life experiences involve having Brad Pitt as an older brother. As a result, people give Doug screenplays for his brother to read. One man came to Doug’s business to ask why Doug and Brad had placed a microchip in his head. Others simply want to hover near the glow of reflected fame.
But there’s something about Pitt few people know, says Miller, a real estate developer who graduated with Doug Pitt from Kickapoo High School in 1985.
“Doug is kind of a bad ass. He is a tough guy,” Miller says. “He would not fight you. Well, he would if he needed to. But with all the charity work he has done — as polished as he has become — you might think you know him.
“He has a very strong sense of right and wrong,” Miller says. “That is one area where he is not bashful. If he ends up in a situation when there is a wrong being done — even if it’s a random situation where it’s being done to someone else — he is the guy who will step in.”
Douglas Mitchell Pitt, 48, stepped in to help his community back in 2007. It started when he was at a Springfield Chamber of Commerce meeting. He was astounded by stories he heard of children in poverty right in his hometown.