Born in Philadelphia on the 31st of August 1938, the son of William and Lola, and brother to William, Jimmy, Richard, Patricia and Catherine (Lonnie), would go on to attend St. James Parochial and West Catholic High School in the city. While playing basketball as a twenty-year-old on the blacktop of Walter Miller Elementary School in the Cobalt Ridge section of Levittown, PA, a lifelong love story began when Don met Eleanor (Ellie), who was undoubtedly dazzled by his potent left hook and deceptively effective one-handed set shot. After accompanying Ellie to her junior prom, he served in the U.S. Army, missing senior prom while stationed in frigid Fairbanks, Alaska from 1960 to 1962. During this time, Don trained hard, cross-country skied, and attended the Century 21 Exposition (also known as the Seattle’s World’s Fair), but famously lost the trinkets he collected there (a sob story he would years later, frequently tell his youngest son).
Don and Ellie tied the knot on February 23, 1963, and shortly thereafter, settled down and started their family in Levittown. He would go on to manage his sons’ various Levittown National Little League teams and was an active member of the Yardley Country Club for decades, bottoming out with a seven handicap despite his unorthodox swing. In 1976, Don took ownership of RHR Technologies in Cinnaminson, New Jersey, running that successful electronic subcontracting business well into the 21st-century.
Don loved his family, golf (Arnold Palmer was is favorite), Philadelphia sports (but Phillies baseball most of all), thriller and espionage novels, Frank Sinatra music, traveling with Ellie and the kids to the Poconos, Bermuda and beyond, and his beautiful Feasterville home where he happily spent the last 35 years of his life.
He is survived by his wife Ellie, three sons Michael (Laura), Gregory (Wendy) and Jeffrey, and seven grandchildren, Amanda, Olivia, Zachary, Nicholas, Christopher, Julie and Mallory, each of whom he was extremely happy and proud to watch grow up.
It doesn’t seem at-all fair or just to boil a life well-lived down to a few paragraphs; a couple of sentences outlining hobbies, passions, and accomplishments. Don was loved by all who knew him because he was a wonderful husband, devoted dad and pop-pop, an honest businessman, and a good friend. To say he will be missed is a considerable understatement.
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