Donald John Bullock Jr.

Donald Bullock was simply a family man. That’s what he thought most about, talked most about; his wife Nancy and their family of two daughters (Heather and Stephanie) and son (Brad). He adored his four granddaughters and one grandson. He delighted in teasing and playing with everyone. Don was easy-going, tender-hearted and kind. He was the sort of guy who would stop the car to help a turtle cross the road, and he often did.

He was raised in a working-class Polish household in Pittsburgh, PA. His father tended the horses for the city’s mounted police, and his mom and grandma made the kind of homemade meals he would rave about for his entire life. His dad contracted polio, when Don, as he was called, was nine-years-old. He spent the entire third grade year quarantined in their home, with extended family and neighbors bringing them food. This fortified him for his journey through Eagle Scouts, and eventually graduating from technical college. Early on he worked for Westinghouse, where his tool and die skills were utilized in top secret work on submarines and deep sea buoys. His security clearance, and really the knowledge about their nuclear programs, he always said, is why he wasn’t drafted and sent to Vietnam. Other work adventures had him building parts of the original NASA lunar landers, as well as delicate precision hand making the first artificial human heart valves.

In Pittsburgh, he met his life’s partner in Nancy Henry, a tenacious early elementary school teacher with two sisters and two brothers, a big family to join. Together they renovated a grand old farmhouse and loved hosting family gatherings. Eventually work in the 1970s dried up in Pittsburgh and Don packed up his family and the gigantic Irish wolfhound, Marsha, and moved to Victoria, Texas. Here he found work on the implements of oil refining for a couple years until that dwindled too, and then he made his biggest adventure yet. He answered an advertisement in the Houston Chronicle for metal workers in Saudi Arabia, and garnered a refinery job in Yanbu. Although, he would laugh and say, his first job there was to fabricate a liquor still for the company executives from Europe. Don and Nancy moved their family to Saudi Arabia, where

she taught school, and their children took a crash course in different cultures. When his oldest daughter was high school age, and too old for school in Saudi Arabia, the family moved back to

the states, settling in High Point, NC.

He worked a lot of different jobs, but Tyco International got him through to the end of his career. In retirement, he liked taking care of and being silly with his grandchildren. He loved birdwatching and enjoying nature, baking apple pies and going for long drives along the coastal waterways with his lady. He and Nancy finally moved to the beach in North Carolina, something they had dreamed about. Don was soft spoken and a kind man, who took great pride and

thoughtful care of his dear Nancy, until his last day. He almost made it to 80 years. He is survived by the above mentioned family, as well as a dear group of kinfolk in the Pittsburgh area. A celebration of his life will be held around Pittsburgh when the weather is warmer with the date and location to be shared. Dad (Pop-Pop, Grandpa, Grandpa B) was a special soul with a playful humor and tender heart. He will be dearly missed.

Online condolences may be made at www.shallottefunerals.com

White Funeral and Cremation Service, Shallotte, North Carolina.