Donald Windsor Stephenson Sr.

Don was born on January 22, 1925 in Lexington, Missouri to Patrick Charles Stephenson, Sr. and Florence Elsie Stephenson. He grew up with his older brother Patrick Charles Stephenson, Jr. and his younger brother Meredith Franklin Stephenson in Lexington, Missouri. While attending Lexington High School he lettered four years in track and two years in football and was captain of the track team in his senior year. He graduated from Lexington High School in 1943 and was Salutatorian of his graduating class.

Don was drafted into the Army in June 1943 during World War II and was honorably discharged with a rank of Technician, 4th Grade (Sargeant) in April 1946. He worked in communications in the Signal Corps and served 15 months overseas in the India-Burma Theater of Operations. This included one assignment of being attached to the 20th Air Force at Karaghpur, India. Once the 20th Air Force was moved closer to Japan, his next assignment was maintaining a communications center at Camp Burns located between Calcutta and Barackpore, India.

After being discharged from the Army, Don enrolled at the University of Missouri and studied Mechanical Engineering, earning his bachelor’s degree in June 1950 and his master’s degree in August 1951. He was a member of the Pi Tau Sigma, Tau Beta Pi and Pi Kappa Alpha fraternities.

In December 1947, Don married Faye Sommerville of Lexington, Missouri. They had two children, Donald Windsor Stephenson, Jr. and Jamie Ann Stephenson. Don and Faye were divorced in October 1965 after 17 years of marriage.

In December 1967, Don married Elaine Ann Ayers in Scottsdale, Arizona. She had two children from her previous marriage, Mark Steven Ayers and Christy Lynn Ayers. Don and Elaine had one child together, Stacey Noelle Stephenson, in August 1969. Don and Elaine resided in Gilbert, Arizona and had been married for 58 years at the time of his passing.

In 1951 Don went to work for Trane in Lacrosse, Wisconsin as a sales engineer for aircraft heat exchangers. In 1954 he left Trane and went to work for Marley in Kansas City, Missouri as a development engineer for industrial heat exchangers. In 1955 he went to work for Westinghouse as an engine performance engineer at its Aviation Gas Turbine Division in Kansas City, Missouri. When Westinghouse closed that division, he was Supervisor of the Engine Performance Group of Preliminary Design. In 1960 he went to work for the AiResearch Division of the Garrett Corporation. Garrett later became part of the Signal Corporation, then Allied-Signal and is now part of Honeywell International. Don initially worked on performance and proposals for mostly auxiliary power gas turbine engines and later strictly worked on engine performance when Garrett entered the aircraft main propulsion engine field. When Don retired in June 1992, he was Manager of the Systems and Analysis Department of Allied-Signal which included approximately one hundred engineers, technicians and secretaries.

Don was a hardworking and loving father, grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather. His smile, stories and kind words will be greatly missed. He is survived by his wife Elaine, sons, Donald W. (Tammy) Stephenson, Jr. and Mark (Susan) Ayers, daughters, Christy (Doug) Daum and Stacey Stephenson, 14 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren and 7 great-great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, his 2 brothers, his daughter Jamie Ann Mathews, his grandson Seth Michael Bray and his great-grandson Benjamin Joseph Wiggins.

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