Nowicki attended Catholic grade schools at Saint Joseph, Everson, and Holy Cross, Youngwood, Pennsylvania.

[1] Nowicki was professed as a Benedictine on July 11, 1966, and ordained to the priesthood at the Archabbey Basilica on May 21, 1972, by Bishop William G. Connare of Greensburg.

At Saint Vincent College he served as Chairman of the Department of Psychology from 1979 to 1984 and Associate Academic Dean from 1983 to 1984.

[3] Under Nowicki, Saint Vincent Archabbey, College, Seminary and Parish underwent major developments, including a new bypass and entrance road to the Saint Vincent campus, the Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve,[4] the Fred M. Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children's Media,[5] the Carey Student Center, the Elizabeth Roderick Center and the John and Annette Brownfield Center, a new apse organ in the Archabbey Basilica along with restoration of the Basilica Crypt, the construction of two college dormitories, Rooney Hall and Saint Benedict Hall, the renovation/restoration of the Archabbey Basilica, construction of a new parish center for Saint Vincent Parish, renovation of Prep Hall and the Latimer Family Library, the establishment of a minority scholarship program named in his honor and the construction of the $40 million Sis and Herman Dupré Science Pavilion.

Archabbot Douglas Nowicki died on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, in Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, following a brief illness.