Donald J. Gould was the kind of guy who got things done.

He showed up unannounced on a friend's doorstep one weekend morning, shovel in hand, to dig an often-mentioned but never fully-planned backyard fish pond.

Working with potters and ceramic engineers, he started an organization dedicated to improving water quality in Third World countries.

Wednesday morning, after a minor car accident on a ramp to the Parkway East in Forest Hills, Mr. Gould got out of his car to check on one of the other drivers involved. Another driver came around the bend of the ramp and lost control of his car on the icy roadway, pinning Mr. Gould and killing him at the scene. He was 55.

"The fact that Don was hit by a car while he was trying to go to the aid of another motorist is so symbolic, so Don," said George Heidekat, a close friend of Mr. Gould's since they went to Duquesne University together in the late 1960s and early '70s.

Back then, said Mr. Heidekat, Mr. Gould was a "lovable hippie" who managed the arts and crafts center in the student union.

After graduating from college, he was able not only to continue producing art but to make a living out of his creative enterprises. Over the years, he did graphic design and communications work for various Pittsburgh groups, including WQED and Carnegie Libraries.

As an artist, he worked in ceramics, glass and bonsai.

Recently, he worked as a consultant for L.E. Smith Glass Co. in Mount Pleasant and co-founded Riverside Design Group Inc. in McKeesport, which makes glassware sold internationally in museum shops and upscale retail stores.

He was spearheading a nonprofit group called Pure Water 4 All, which used relatively simple ceramic pots to filter drinking water in Third World countries.

"He had a very interesting and sort of self-designed career," said Mr. Heidekat. "He found his own path."

He was known nationally and internationally for his bonsai pots, said John Dymun, a fellow member of the Pittsburgh Bonsai Society, who remembers presenters at national conferences describing photographs of bonsai trees inside "a Don Gould pot."

In bonsai, like other artistic and commercial areas, he enjoyed pushing the envelope. Mr. Dymun said that at a recent conference, Mr. Gould presented to the notoriously traditional audience a pot developed with the assistance of Carnegie Mellon University computer technology.

"He was a very creative and gentle soul," said Mr. Dymun. "He had this ability to focus on minute design detail on the one hand, but he also had a very expansive vision."

Survivors include his wife, Sally, of Wilkins; his son, Ian, of New York City; daughter Abby, of Regent Square; father Donald, of Houston, and his sister, Christine Crawford of Baltimore.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete and are being handled by Wolfe Memorial of Forest Hills.