Douglas E. Friedman, a member of the Asbury Park High School Class of 1960, attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (A.B.1964). While at UNC, he served as a statistician for legendary coach Dean Smith’s first three basketball teams there. In 1967, he received his Juris Doctor degree from the Villanova University School of Law. He joined the Law Department at Amerada Hess Corporation (now, Hess Corporation) in 1969 and eventually became a Corporate Vice President and General Counsel to Hess’s Refining and Marketing Operation, itself a multi-billion-dollar enterprise. He was counsel to Hess Corporation for over 30 years.

Friedman retired from Hess in 2002 to devote more time to his lifelong interest in music. Since then, he has written or co-authored five books on music history, including a biography of the Comedian Harmonists, an extremely popular German singing group in the 1930s that was forced by the Nazis to disband because three of the six members were Jewish. The Chair of the Jewish Studies Department at Williams College (where Friedman was also a guest lecturer) called it: “A superb book that brings to light a story that is of great interest. Douglas Friedman’s book is an important contribution to our historical understanding of the diverse contributions of German Jews to German culture during the 1930s and the impact of Nazi anti-Semitism on German society and culture in general.” Terry Stewart, President of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, said: "Douglas Friedman’s book . . . is a very welcome addition to the literature on music history.”

Friedman’s biography of the great American singing group, the Mills Brothers, was short-listed (final four) for the award given by the Association for Recorded Sound Collections for outstanding research in the area of popular music and won the award for Best Discography of 2017 – an "Oscar"in this field. John H. Mills, II, son, grandson and nephew of the origin