Donald E. Green

June 5, 1930 ~ December 10, 2021 (age 91)

On Friday, December 10, 2021, tornadoes and thunderstorms tore through the Midwest as all in the afterlife rushed to be the first to talk to Donald E. Green who passed away at St. Joseph Hospital in Mishawaka, Indiana at 19:42. The storms quieted later that night after Don assured all who had gone before that there was plenty of room at the table and if there wasn’t he would teach them all to make a bigger table and in his casual way he invited everyone to pull up a chair to hear tales of a life well lived.

Donald Green was born in Clay Township on June 5, 1930 and swore from that moment forward he never had a bad day in his life. His parents Mina L. and Lucian E. Green preceded him in death as did his brothers Robert and Delbert Green. As a child of the depression Don would tell you so long as he and his family had a little land and each other, they wanted for nothing. He learned to make his own fun, got into some mischief, and figured out how to stretch a little bit a long way, which is possibly how he became one of the most inventive and interesting thinkers people knew.

Don joined the Army after graduating Riley High School in 1949 but switched to the Air Force simply because the M.P.s in that branch got to ride better motorcycles. He served during the Korean War and was stationed in the U.K. where he learned the world was quite large and that he wanted to experience all of it. In 1951 on a pass in London, he saw a long line and decided to get in it. When he got to the front, he asked the gentleman collecting money, “What's this line been for?'' and the man said, “Sir, you’ve arrived at the festival of Britain!” Don’s imagination was captured by the mechanical wonders on display. He always said the lesson in this was, “If you see a line, get in it and see what you can learn from the ride!”

Upon his discharge from the Air Force, Don joined the Indiana National Guard. His service included meeting up with his unit for training one weekend a month, but there is reason to believe that Don and his pals may have stretched how many weekends they owed the Guard as to light out on motorcycle rides, tinker with machinery, do a good deed that needed doing, or get into a little more mischief. Don would say, “Military rank can be like a yo-yo. Sometimes it goes up and other times down, but one side has more perks.” He retired from the National Guard in 1992 having obtained the rank of 1st Sergeant. Don was proud to have served his country and also knew that he benefited from his service, including learning that he was smart in ways that they don’t usually teach in schools. These smarts would later benefit his employers.

Like many South Bend residents Don was proud that he worked at Studebaker Corporation. He also worked at Adams Engineering, Armco, Jones Engineering, and Mathias Machinery. Additionally, Don worked on the Talos Missile at Bendix Aviation. However, the pride of his professional career was working as a project engineer and in quality control at Steel Warehouse from 1977 – 2004. Don and his colleagues may have been the brains behind many patents and innovative techniques, but his supervisors at Steel Warehouse deserve credit too as they gave Don a great deal of latitude to do things well and on his own time. As a non-linear thinker who worked complex equations in his head, it took some patience to let Don do his thing. At his retirement, the company named a building for him. Don loved the people he worked with; they were all part of his extended family.

Don was fortunate to be married to the world’s most patient woman for 64 years. On August 10, 1957, Don wed Marion L. (Jacobs) Green, a loving, lovely, generous, and smart woman who survives him and resides in Mishawaka, IN. Together Don and Marion saw much of the world and were adventurers before it was in vogue. They saw Paris and London and all of the sights, they toured the castles of Germany and toured Austria with their future daughter-in-law, they learned about Pharaohs in Egypt and saw the Holy Land, toured through North and South Africa, sailed around the Horn of South America and stopped in many destinations in-between. When it was recently told to Don that the traditional 65th wedding anniversary gift was sapphires, he said, “I didn’t know that. I thought it would be dentures or tombstones!”

For her sake as much as his, Marion agreed that Don should go adventuring from time to time. On these adventures, Don lived out the philosophy that Hunter S. Thompson might have borrowed from Don or the other way around, “life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a ride!”

He took motorcycle trips down Route 66 and to the corners of North America, including a trip in Alaska where, when the pavement ran out, he ran along the Alaskan Pipeline to the end. On the way back down the pipeline he saw a barn with a plane in it so he rode up and told the guy with the plane that he’d give him the motorcycle in exchange for a flight to an airport. Green rode across Africa (North to South as well as East to West) and, as he would tell it, on every continent that had roads. Don loved to tell how he crossed the Atlantic Ocean twice by ship– once in a troop ship and once on the Queen Mary II with Marion. He would say that one of those was better than the other. He also flew on one of the last flights of the Concord and marveled at the beauty of the sun setting slowly in reverse the entire trip to New York.

Speaking of adventures, Don and Marion opened their hearts and their home to Brian Collier during his high school years and he became the son they never had. Don relished teaching life lessons to Collier and his pack of friends. Don held forth on life, love, history and well, just Don-stuff which included notions of chivalry and the ability to think about the world from a perspective that others couldn’t yet see. Don loved Amy Cooper Collier, Brian’s former spouse, as his own daughter. In his 91st year of life, Don jumped out of an airplane with Amy, his niece’s son Kyle Tucker, and other friends, adding yet another great story to his list. Don loved being a grandparent to the Collier’s children Gavin Michael Cooper Collier and Avison (Ava) Kathleen Cooper Collier to the moon and back. Had he continued to live he likely would have built some contraption to actually take Gavin and Avison to that very moon. Both of his grandchildren remember him as taking time to build things with and for them. Gavin recalls afternoons with Grandpa where Grandpa would make home-made vanilla milk that wasn’t good and things in his workshop that were quite good. Gavin recalls that Grandpa always made sure that Gavin had a role in the thinking, designing, and building from a personal home-made mechanized vending machine to Halloween pranks and other inventions that were adventurous in fact and with Grandpa in the process of the making too. He knew that Grandpa could always be counted on to surprise and sometimes even do it safely. Avison remembers Grandpa working with her to build her cat a playhouse; the package came with instructions, but Grandpa threw them away. It took twice as long to build as following the instructions might have, but it was about the journey and doing it together. He also happily built a full-size stage for productions for her in the basement, and the very best zipline a girl and her pack of friends could ever want, always quick with wit and a story for the kids he served as a role model of trust, humility, fantasy, and hard-work and left to them a lifetime of stories that nobody will ever believe, but having known and loved him they will always know were not just good stories, but some of them had the benefit of also being true.

In addition, Don had several nieces and nephews who he would do just about anything for; his world was their world just but for the asking. Steven and Glen passed before their Uncle Don. Robert, Melanie, Dorothy, Edwin, Ann, and Kerry Green, Debbie Borkowski (Green), and Pat and Tom Tucker survive him.

Beyond his family, Don gave of himself to many organizations and individuals including every motorcycle club he ever heard of, the Experimental Aircraft Association, the American Legion, Westminster Presbyterian Church, where he was an usher and Deacon, and the National Rifle Association. A two-time National Rifle Champion, Don walked the world with strength and humility, was a natural teacher, had a knack for knowing the right thing to do, and knew how to listen and to argue. If he was wrong, he said so, and tried to do better.

Late in life when asked if he had any regrets, Don said, “Regrets, what do I have to regret or be sad for? I’ve lived a good life. I’ve done it all. That brass ring never once passed me by. I’ve had a helluva ride.” Then he smiled, winked, and said, “You know, I haven’t had one bad day in my life!” On the stormy night of his passing, a nurse attending Don in his final moments overheard this business about him not having one bad day in his life and offered sadly, “Well, maybe this one?” Those of us who knew him would say what he said, “Gaawd, no! What a ride!” Don’s adventures surely continue, and we send him forth with the benediction he’s given to so many, his deep and sonorous one word good-bye: “PEACE!”

To pay respects and to hear more stories of a life well lived join us Friday, December 17, 2021 for a brief visitation beginning at 11:30 with small remarks and maybe a tall tale at 12:15 followed by full military honors at 12:30 along with final internment. All the proceedings will be held at the Mausoleum at St. Joseph Valley Memorial Park and cemetery at 375 W. Cleveland Road across from the University Park Mall in Granger, Indiana. Feel free to come dressed as you are every day as Don would have had it no other way. Palmer Funeral Home-Bubb Chapel is assisting the family with the arrangements.

By the way, Don didn't just love people but animals too and in lieu of flowers he asked that you would consider a donation in his  memory to the Humane Society of St. Joseph County where he got some of his many cherished pets: 2506 Grape Rd, Mishawaka, IN 46545 or online.

Online condolences may be left for the family at www.palmerfuneralhomes.com.

12.14.2021 djb

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