Donald Allen Weber

Don, 82, was born in Eugene, Oregon to Ruby Young Weber and Walter Weber and passed away on June 3, 2020 in Seattle. He is survived by his wife, Leanore (Lee); his sons Douglas (and Susan) and Eric; his granddaughter, Sydney; his sister, Ailene (and Dennis). He attended elementary schools in Eugene, high school in Medford, and graduated from Oregon State College in 1959 with an electrical engineering degree. Boeing brought him to Seattle where he worked for 25 years. Then he became a self-employed consulting engineer for another 20 years. His specialty was designing testing chambers for the electronic components of cars and planes. His work took him to places in the U.S. and in Sweden, Germany, Russia, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. He always enjoyed his challenging work.

Don and Leanore (Lee) were married for 59 years. The family enjoyed many hiking and backpacking trips in the Cascades. They also enjoyed spending time at a shared cabin on Orcas Island; kayaking and boating to other islands, beach combing, and relaxing to island time. To celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary, the family of six rented a chalet in the Swiss Alps and explored ancestral valleys and hiked the high mountain meadows for two weeks. He was deeply loved by his family and we felt his love and support as we made our way in the world.

Don had a life-long interest in Boy Scouts; first joining a troop in Medford, serving as a high school counselor at the Lake of the Woods Boy Scout camp, and obtaining an Eagle Scout Award. One of the highlights of his youth was a scouting rafting trip through the Owyhee Canyon in SE Oregon. As an adult, he was a volunteer leader in the local Troop 360 and accompanied the troop on many outings, including a 14 day trip to the National Boy Scout Philmont Ranch in New Mexico.

When homelessness became a problem in the local community, Don helped his church start a shelter for women in the church building. Hospitality House has been running continuously for 20 years, serving 9 women each evening in the Burien area. Many local churches and service organizations donate money and volunteer hours to keep this shelter operating at this crucial time. Although Don served in many leadership roles in his church community, he main interest was with the social action committee.

Don developed a diverse taste in music. For many years, Don and Lee have been Seattle symphony subscribers. But in his retirement years, Don became fond of blue grass music, and we began attending local live blue grass concerts and festivals. Don joined the Old Time Fiddler’s group and began playing a guitar and performing at local venues, an activity he thoroughly enjoyed.

Other interests of Don’s included weekly lawn bowling at the Beacon Hill courts with his retired friends, a weekly Friday morning breakfast group, and a monthly theological discussion group. He valued getting together with our friends for short weekend excursions or longer Road Scholar programs. And he always looked forward to our annual family reunions.

When Parkinson’s Disease invaded his body, he faithfully did his therapy exercises to maintain his strength for many years. Later when the disease overwhelmed his body and mind, he accepted his limitations and continued his kind, gentle nature. Many of the staff at his care facility would tell the family how much they liked caring for Don.

Favorite story from Doug:

Don loved going on Boy Scout outings with his sons. One of his favorite trips was the annual snow outing where we built snow caves or igloos to use instead of tents. One year we built snow caves on Mount Rainer and the next morning woke up to a big storm with white out conditions. We spent the day inside our snow caves cooking meals and telling stories. Two other hikers had built an igloo close to our snow caves and tried to hike out in the storm. They got lost and luckily ended up in our snow cave. They stayed in our snow cave overnight and the next morning the storm broke and we were all able to hike back down to our cars. Don climbed Mt. McLaughlin many times growing up. In 2007 he climbed it one last time with son Doug and Warren, Chris, and Brad Dunkin. It was a difficult and amazing hike.

Fond memory from Eric:

Travels in Europe Back in 1980, my dad made a business trip to visit some Boeing clients in the UK and Germany. It wasn't the first or last such trip, but this time my mom and I tagged along to do some tourism. While my dad was obviously busy with work during the day, he was able to join us in the evenings and on weekends. We also were able to stay with one of his client's families for part of the trip. During the Stuttgart leg of the trip, Boeing finance was questioning why Boeing had to pay the hotel bill for the whole family, instead of just dad. Dad asked the hotel what the rate for just one person would be, and discovered that we were actually getting a discounted special family rate. He naturally told finance that he would be happy to submit an expense report for the higher single rate, but finance decided maybe the family rate was OK after all. Another experience from that trip had a surprising impact on my life. Our family and a client family were exploring a castle. I happened to wander down some stairs into a cellar, and noticed there was a second staircase leading somewhere else, but it was too dark to see anything. I knew my dad had brought some cool looking pen lights on the trip, so I asked if I could use one. Dad told me they were reserved as gifts for clients. This disappointed me, but it also led to me becoming a flashlight collector and bringing one or more lights with me wherever I went. The more important lesson from this trip was that I greatly enjoyed travel with my parents. We made several more overseas trips over the years, culminating in a trip to Switzerland for my parents’ 50th anniversary. Especially after I left home, these provided great opportunities to spend time with my parents.