Donald Eugene Utley passed away peacefully at his Fort Collins home on November 13, 2019 at the age of 79. A beloved husband and father, he will be greatly missed by his wife, five children and three grandchildren.
Born in Parsons, Kansas to Leo and Roberta Utley on April 25th, 1940, Don attended Parsons High School, where he graduated in 1958. Shortly thereafter, he followed his older brother Bob to southern California where he began working in the telecommunications industry as a repairman for the Pacific Bell Telephone Company, and later, Continental Telephone. While living and working in Glendale, California, Don met and later married his wife Carol in 1964. They remained married for 55 years. Together they raised five children: Laura, Michael, David, John and Sandra. Don also served as an airman in the U.S. Naval Reserves.
In 1972, Don moved his family to Fort Collins, Colorado, where he began working for Mountain Bell and later U.S. West. Also, partnering with his parents and two older brothers, Bob and Allen, Don purchased land near Carr, Colorado, and formed the Utley Land and Cattle Company, a farming venture he enjoyed for many years. When offered an early retirement from U.S. West in 1990, Don accepted and started his own limousine driving business, which he operated for a few years before returning to telecommunications. He founded Utley Communications, a business in which he sold, installed and repaired home and business communications systems.
Shortly after moving to Fort Collins, Don and his family became actively involved in the First Church of the Nazarene. Don felt a calling to serve as a volunteer van driver, taking kids to and from Sunday school and morning services. Later he served as a basketball coach in the Fort Collins interchurch basketball league. He felt that such programs might introduce kids to Christianity, perhaps for the first time. One of his greatest joys was participating in junior high and high school age league play, as well as coaching teams to state tournament victories, and an annual national tournament held at Northwest Nazarene College in Nampa Idaho, an event he won in 1987.
But Don’s greatest love was coaching baseball. He coached each of his three sons in the Fort Collins Youth Baseball program, from ages 8 through 15. After that, he managed teams in Legion Baseball leagues at the high school level. Hence the Utley family spent many summer evenings and weekends at the local ballparks with Don’s teams; his intense desire to learn the game kept him at the diamond most nights coaching, spectating, or scouting his competition. In fact, many of his baseball mentors and close friends were at one time his rival coaches. In all, his participation in Fort Collins baseball spanned over thirty years. His greatest wish was to be remembered for the emphasis he placed upon sportsmanship and respect for the game.
In his retirement years Don enjoyed morning coffees with friends and fellow businessmen. As a grandfather, he attended many of his grandsons’ hockey games, as he followed the Denver Broncos and especially Colorado Rockies baseball. He loved driving to class reunions in and around Parsons and was saddened in his final years when he was no longer able to visit his lifelong friends and loved ones in his hometown. But in the end his Christian faith grew, and he enjoyed his seat at the kitchen window watching the deer, foxes, ducks and hawks that visited his property.
Don was preceded in death by his father, Leo Utley, and his mother, Roberta Utley. He is survived by his brothers, Allen (Jenae) Utley of Checotah, Oklahoma, and Robert (Karen) Utley of Briggsdale, Colorado. Surviving members of his immediate family include his wife, Carol Utley, children, Laura (Mike) DuHadway, Michael Utley, David Utley of Denver, John Utley and Sandra Utley, and grandchildren, Kaley, Tyler and Marc DuHadway, all of Fort Collins.
Memorial Services will be held at LifePointe Church, 900 E. Prospect Road, in Fort Collins on Tuesday, November 19th, 2019 at 2:00p.m.
In lieu of flowers, donations for the Fort Collins Baseball Club are accepted on the website (ColoradoGives.org)
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