Beverly Jean Donner

Beverly Jean Fillips Donner of Falls Church, VA, a retired nurse anesthetist, died on April 29th, 2023 at Virginia Hospital Center of sepsis. She was born on September 12, 1932 in Owen, WI, the first child of Elsie Decker Fillips and Harold A. Fillips, both deceased. Her early years were spent in Wisconsin before moving to Minnesota where she graduated from Aitkin High School in 1950.

A graduate of the Hamline University School of Nursing (Mounds-Midway Division), the Minneapolis School of Anesthesia, and the University of Minnesota, she taught surgical nursing at the University of Michigan and twice at the Mounds-Midway School of Nursing.

In February 1965 she went to Vietnam as a U.S. Public Health Service nurse officer with the rank of commander, a nurse anesthetist on a PHS surgical team treating civilian casualties at the Danang Provincial Hospital. She and other team members were on China Beach on March 8, 1965 when the first major U.S. Marine landing occurred there. In Danang, she met her future husband, Fred Donner, an airline manager, and they married in Hong Kong following her tour of duty, who passed away 364 days earlier.

They later spent 11 years in Wycliffe Bible Translators including four years back in Vietnam as a business manager and nurse where they adopted their daughter Susan. They left Vietnam in April 1975 in the closing days of South Vietnam following seven years there, singly or together. She practiced anesthesia in Omaha, Minneapolis, Dallas, and Manassas, VA following her husband’s career moves. During his Foreign Service assignment in Manila she came to love the Philippines as much as she had Vietnam.

After retirement they built a second home on Sugar Lake in Aitkin County, MN, where her parents had owned the Hide-A-Way Resort for many years. For (2001+) years they spent six months there each year and were members of the Glen Community Church that she had attended in high school. She enjoyed, as she had elsewhere, teaching a Bible study group there. She was often observed on her pontoon with fishing pole in hand cruising Sugar Lake for northern pike.

A member of Columbia Baptist Church in Falls Church, VA for (1982+) years, for some years there she taught the international Sunday school class and English as a second language making many lifelong international friends.

Survivors include daughter Susan of Alexandria, VA, sister Marilyn Schroeder of Maple Grove, MN, brother Bruce Fillips of Grand Marais, MN, nephew Kevin Fillips, and nephew and niece Jack and Greta Shreve of Chanhassen, MN.

Memorial services will be held at Columbia Baptist church June 2nd, 2023 at 11AM and inurnment will be held at a later date at the Malmo Cemetery in Aitkin County, MN. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be sent to Wycliffe Bible Translators, https://www.wycliffe.org/donate, P.O. Box 628200, Orlando, FL 32832 designated for East Asia work or Glenn Community Church at c/o Annette Walberg, 32737 Nuthatch Ave, Aitkin, MN 56431 or Columbia Foundation, https://www.columbiafoundation.net/support, 103 W. Columbia St, Falls Church, VA 22046.