Donna Lee Schubert

Gifted with a strong intellect, she was admitted to university in Buffalo on a scholarship and stayed until the money ran out. She married Paul Smith and soon Sunshine arrived. Strong and independent, she went from raising Sunshine and a collection of chickens and goats to getting a metallurgical engineering degree at the University of Southern Colorado in 1978. After a successful yet miserable stay in Dallas, the Bay Area beckoned. There, she led an engineering group doing work that took her around the world. Unafraid to stir up trouble, she sued her employer for promoting incompetent men over her, which led to her opening her own successful consulting firm. She first landed in the armpit of Laughlin, where she met Craig at the Mohave Generating Station in 1990 before she was proudly thrown off the site for having the audacity to insist on safety.

She quickly realized that Craig would be her life partner, although it took Craig – thirteen years her junior – another eight years to see that, too. She encouraged Craig to go to law school and then she followed him there in San Diego where they shared a home with Sunshine, who was serving in the US Navy. Donna graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1997 and then followed Craig to Henderson, Nevada where they were married in the living room of their spartan white spec house.

Over the next 27 years Donna transformed all she touched, turning the house to a loving home which she opened up with joy and laughter to all, finding love and companionship with family, pets, and friends. She loved the holidays as it gave her the excuse to host banquets and to invite friends, new and old. She created and hosted a community of knitters with whom she was generous with her talent and knowledge. She loved her sister Debra and Debra’s husband Dan, and they formed a bond that would last their lifetimes.

Donna’s last years were uncomfortable and painful, marked by deteriorating health and the loss of Debra and Dan, all of which narrowed her world. Yet she adapted and always sought to find and spread love, which she did until she left us in the loving home she created. Those of us that knew her and loved her are grateful that she chose to spend her life with us, and we are better people because of her.

Services will be private.