There is a small group of us from the class of ‘93 that gets together once a year somewhere in the U.S., and has every year for the last 10 years. During one of our first trips, we were headed from Seattle to eastern Washington on a small bus. Someone had the great idea to call Don and include him in our experience. So we did – we called him. He picked up the phone immediately, recognizing that it was a former LGO student, and proceeded to talk to us about the trip, some things going on in our lives – always asking terrific questions, of course – and shared a little bit about his own experiences.
Only later in the call did we learn that he was actually in Asia, that we’d woken him, and that he was perfectly willing to engage in a few minute long conversation with us, because he enjoyed it so much. That epitomizes the kind of friend Don was to all of us.
He was selfless with his time, always willing to help, and always asking questions about what was happening in our lives first. From then on, every year, we would call Don wherever we were. And he would always answer the phone.