A highly recruited baseball star from Bayside (Long Island) High School, Don was New York World Telegraph & Sun’s most valuable player in 1949 and toured with the New York Yankees during his senior year. He played pro baseball with the Pittsburgh Pirates after being signed by famed baseball executive Branch Rickey who called Don “A Corker. A born, natural hitter with great power.”
During this time Don met his future wife, Louisiana native Ethel Mae Guerin. They married November 14, 1953 and made their home in Baton Rouge, LA, then Fairfield, CT and finally settling in Dallas, TX.
After baseball, Don spent most of his career in the sporting goods industry. From 1972-1983 he was President of Marietta Manufacturing (later named MaxPro), a Dallas-based football helmet manufacturing company. He retired in 1991.
Don is survived by his wife of 60 years, Ethel Beitter, sister Janet M. O’Connor, daughter Rene’ O’Connor and husband Tom, daughter Karen Glover and husband Doug, son Donald Beitter Jr., son Richard Beitter and wife Sara, son John Beitter and wife Jennifer, son Kevin Beitter, sixteen grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his father and mother, Gustav J. Beitter and Marion R. Seamon Beitter.
A Visitation will be held Thursday, January 23, 2014 at Calvary Hill Funeral Home 3235 Lombardy Ln. Dallas, TX 75220 from 6:00 – 8:00 pm with a Rosary to be recited at 6:30 pm. A Memorial Mass will be held in his honor at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church 720 S. Floyd Rd. Richardson, TX 75080 on Friday, January 24, 2014 at 10:00 am.
