Don is the second born of a family with nine boys and three girls. Family has always been important to him. He always tried to please and help his mother with housework and his father with farm work to the best of his ability. Don did not have to be told a second time to do some things. He spent two years with the army in New Jersey at the Nike base. After discharge from the army, he went to work for American Airlines for thirty-seven years. Retirement gave him many days of freedom. He golfed for a year, bought ten acres south of Winterset, Iowa, built three ponds, a covered bridge over his overflow, a small barn, a six-bedroom house, and planted a one-acre garden. After about eight years of enjoying his adventure of that achievement, he discovered a slow pitch ball. He began playing ball again, which he enjoyed so much in his youth. Remember, his family was of nine boys and three girls: a baseball team and cheerleaders. He still plays for three different teams: seventy-five-year-old and eighty-year-old travel teams. Every June, he meets the challenges the Senior Olympics have to offer in football distance (he has taken first place in his age each year), softball accuracy, etc. He has over a hundred medals from his years of competition. In the summer of 2018, he was inducted in the Senior Games Hall of Fame. Don has been blessed in his life and enjoys sharing the good and bad of his life so far, which he knows has made him what he has become today.