Donald Kraft

He was born Feb 23, 1930 in Mattoon, IL to Lloyd and Irma (Bigler) Kraft. He married Frances Thomas, June 6, 1953. She passed Feb 13, 2013. They enjoyed nearly 60 years of marriage.

Don graduated from Neoga High School 1948, University of Illinois 1952 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Ceramic Engineering with honors. Upon graduation, he was commissioned as Second Lieutenant, US Army Signal Corp.

Early in his 20 year Army career, Don earned a Master’s Degree in Nuclear Physics, University of Virginia and was assigned to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California. During his time in the Army, Don was assigned to many places in the US and Germany and also served tours of duty in Korea and Vietnam. After his military career he served in several federal agencies including National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Defense Information Systems Agency, Office of the Secretary of the Department of Defense, and National Communications Expert in the US Mission to NATO, Brussels, Belgium. He also earned a law degree from Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. and obtained the privilege to practice law in several states including Illinois and Virginia.

He was proud to be an Eagle Scout and his memberships include American Legion and Sons of the American Revolution. He and Fran volunteered for many years at George Washington’s Mt Vernon, logging 1000 hours as first person historical interpreters while educating visitors and giving tours. Don also was involved with the restoration of Washington’s Gristmill & Distillery, providing education and tours there as well. He loved music and was a member of many community choirs including the barbershop group Alexandria Harmonizers and also Oratorio Society of Washington with performances with the National Symphony. He gladly used Wash DC rush hour traffic as a great excuse to delay his evening commutes while joining city piano bar players as an impromptu vocalist. Community Theater was also a joy and he was given leading roles in musical productions.

He excelled at singing, ballroom dancing, master gardening, history, foreign languages, photography, stained glass, gourmet cooking, entertaining, and loved sailing his boat “The Other Woman”.

Communications was his speciality and he became a HAM radio operator, chatting with people around the world and patching calls connecting military families to loved ones overseas. Don was a fine storyteller and delighted family with his adventures as a boy growing up on a farm in Neoga. Early on he and his older sister loved riding in their pony cart thru the apple orchards on the family farm. As a young teen he always had a job, whether it was cleaning the ashes from furnaces on Saturday morning, working in one of the local factories, helping a local farmer or running the projectors in the town movie theatre. The Neoga farm always remained home.

A loving and caring family man, he leaves behind devoted companion Ms Terry Perrine, his sons Matthew, Alan (Kristine), Christopher (Mary Beth), daughter Kathleen (Keith), grandsons Quintas, Corey, Cole, Michael, Joe and families, sisters Kay, Martha (Jim), 6 nephews, 1 niece, many great nephews and nieces. Don’s kind, generous, adventurous, joyful spirit will be greatly missed.

Funeral services will be held at a later date at Arlington National Cemetery.