Obituary of Donald Lewis Krausmann

Don went to be with the Lord August 3, 2020 at the residence he shared with his wife Jean in Olympia, Washington.  They had just celebrated 63 years of marriage together in July.  He is survived by his wife Jean, son Jeff, and five grandchildren.

Don was born in Buffalo, New York.  As an infant, he was adopted into a loving family in the Niagara Falls area.  His mother was a schoolteacher and his father was a department store owner.  Don had a real passion for the outdoors and, as a small boy, often snuck out of the house to explore the steep cliffs of the Niagara Falls Gorge.  He spent his summers in Michigan, fishing and canoeing, and became a camp counselor and a canoe instructor for the local YMCA.  As a young man, he worked in his dad’s store as a sales clerk and eventually went to Forestry School at Syracuse University.  Don took courses in banking and business and obtained a pilot’s license, owning his own plane for about a year.

Don joined the U.S. Army and became a medical lab technician at a hospital in Germany.  After three years, he returned to Niagara Falls as an Army Reservist and met his wife, Jean, while skiing and serving as a member of the National Ski Patrol at the local ski club.  Don and Jean married and had their daughter, Karen, and a few years later, their son, Jeff.  Don enjoyed his children and would spend a great deal of time taking the family on hikes, family trips, and other adventures.

After several years working as a lab technician for Goodyear Tire and Rubber and a mixing equipment company, the family moved to Rochester, New York, where Don began work as a Trust Officer in a local bank. Don and Jean pursued a variety of activities, including family trips around New England, community work at the Lion’s Club, performing and working with a local musical group, playing cards, gardening, and staying involved with their church community.

Don explored other professions as well, and moved the family to Connecticut, Maryland, and eventually to Richmond, Virginia, where he went from running a mobile medical unit to becoming a Fixed Asset Manager in hospital accounts at Virginia Commonwealth University.  Don also became a Master Mason at the local Masonic Lodge in Richmond, and provided support for Angel Flight Southeast, which provided voluntary medical transportation services by private pilots.

Don retired in Richmond and then moved to Leesburg, Florida, for a few years before going to New Bern, North Carolina, to be closer to their daughter, Karen, and her family.  After missing Florida, they moved back again to be with friends and continued their dining-out adventures.  Along about this time, Don began to have some heart issues and underwent quadruple bypass surgery, which allowed him to continue his walks and other retirement activities for many more years.

Soon after his youngest granddaughter was born, Don and Jean made the big move out west to Washington State, where they settled into a 55+ community in Olympia, for which Don became the Resident Manager.  Eventually, assisted living seemed to be the next necessary step, so they relocated just down the street from their son, Jeff, and his family.  Don loved spending time with his granddaughters, and attending many family events, Mariner baseball games, and airshows with his son’s family.  On his 80^th birthday, Don took his first helicopter ride.  His daughter, Karen, and her family visited from North Carolina several times before she passed and Don continued to always enjoy and take delight in all his grandchildren.

Always quick with the smile, wit, and mischievous grin, Don was a pleasure to be around and a joy to all who met him.  He was happy with the same clothes, plain vanilla ice cream, and required very little from anyone who enjoyed his company.  He was a faithful husband, father, companion and friend, and always willing to serve and give a stranger a smile.  Don will be missed but he has found joy with our Lord upon his arrival in Heaven.  

Please feel free to share your fondest memories or stories of Don with us on the Tribute Wall to the left, and include your favorite photos for all of us to enjoy and reminisce with one another.  Thank you.  The Krausmann Family

 

 

 

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