Wichita food truck scene pioneer dies at 36, one month after his business partner, sister
The co-founder of B.S. Sandwich Press — one of Wichita’s first food trucks when it opened in 2012 — has died at age 36, just four weeks after the death of his business partner and older sister.
Doug Buchanan died Saturday from liver and kidney failure, said his mother, Jere Buchanan. Jodi, 44, died from the same complications on June 21. She had also suffered from lupus.
The family, which includes Jere’s husband, Bruce, and middle daughter, Staci Romero, is having trouble processing it all, Jere Buchanan said. Romero’s two children, ages 11 and 6, are having a particularly hard time dealing with the loss of their fun uncle and aunt, neither of whom had their own kids and who were always available to spoil their niece and nephew.
“We’re just doing our best,” Jere said on Monday morning. “We’re in a tizzy of just not believing everything.”
Doug Buchanan and his sister were both sick at the same time, but Doug was determined to beat his illness, his mother said. He’d been on dialysis and in and out of the hospital but was sent home more than a week ago for hospice care. He kept insisting that he was feeling better, but doctors told him he was not going to recover.
When he finally accepted that fact, his mother said, he asked his parents to organize a memorial celebration he could attend. They put out a call, and about 36 of his closest friends — including several of the guys he played football with at Derby High School in the early 2000s — gathered in the Buchanan family home a week ago to share stories and memories with Doug there.
“We said 5 to 7, but they were there until 10,” Jere Buchanan said. “He was so tired and worn out, but he was smiling through it all. He got to do it his way.”
Doug Buchanan was the baby of the family and the only boy among the three siblings, Jere said. He was probably spoiled, she admitted, and his older sisters doted on him.
He was always a big guy — in high school he was 6-foot-3 and 270 pounds — and he was a football star during his time at Derby High School, where he graduated in 2003. He played center for the team, which made it to state during his tenure, and during his senior year, he was selected to play in the Kansas Shrine Bowl. He also played high school basketball.
After graduation, he went to Kansas State University, where he was a redshirt walk-on for the Wildcat football team and suited up for many games, including the Fiesta Bowl in 2003. The next year, he transferred to Oklahoma State University, but NCAA rules meant he’d have to sit out for a year. During that time, he decided his football career was over. He finished his business degree at Friends University, his mother said.
Buchanan took a job working at Spirit AeroSystems as a programmer, but he didn’t love it, his mother said. He and Jodi started hatching plans to start a food truck. They’d both always been foodies, and Doug loved to cook.
Brothers Jeff and Rob Schauf opened The Flying Stove in 2011, and the Buchanans were not far behind. They opened their business out of a little orange pull-behind trailer and sold sandwiches, hand-cut fries, homemade chips and more. The “B.S.” in their name stood for “Buchanan Style.”
The food truck scene continued to grow, and the Schauf and Buchanan siblings were seen as the elder statesmen. Aspiring food truckers would go to them for help and advice. The siblings upgraded to a custom-built, 18-foot truck with a new kitchen in 2015 and had been serving out of it ever since. They’d returned to a post-pandemic schedule in May when both fell ill.
Doug was a character who was always up to something, his mother said. Proud of his Scottish heritage, he wore a kilt to his senior prom. He was famous for posing for one of his senior portraits wearing only his football socks and sprawled out on a bear skin rug.
“They did wrap something around his bum,” Jere said with a laugh. “That was the talk of the school. Most all of the teachers wanted one as well as the kids. That’s how crazy he was.”
He also loved to travel, and he and Jodi went to Rome with their mother in 2019. In 2017, the whole family went to Scotland, and Doug and his middle sister, Staci, participated in “The Loony Dook,” a New Year’s Day tradition where the citizens of Edinburgh dress up and then run into the freezing river.
Doug wasn’t shy, and he was the one who would talk to customers on the food truck. He loved his business and kept insisting to his parents that he’d be well enough to get the truck back out by October. Now, Jere Buchanan said, she and her husband will likely sell the truck.
Jere said Doug was a prankster who always liked to scare his “goosey” mother, sneaking up behind her or jumping out from behind a corner. She didn’t love that habit, she said.
“But now I’m going to miss that so dearly.”
The family will have a service for Doug on Tuesday at Countryside Christian Church, 1919 S. Rock Road, the same place where Jodi’s services were a month ago.
This story was originally published July 19, 2021 at 10:52 AM.
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