Obituary for Don Kelley
~James Donald Kelley~
July 25th, 1934 – February 9th, 2020
Don was born a child of God, and chose to honor Him, by dedicating his life to the service of others. As a young boy, he first served at the altar of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Wayne, Michigan, where he attended parochial school for 12 years. As a young man, he served his county with the Air National Guard and U.S. Air Force Reserve in their aircraft maintenance squadron. He was educated at both the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University, which lead to his doing 10 years of Engineering with the Ford Motor Company. During those years that he lived in Wayne and later in Saline he worked tirelessly on countless community improvement projects.
In 1967 Don had a life-changing experience when he joined a yearlong travel log filming expedition to Central and South America. His travels in Third World countries taught him that the only way to break the cycle of poverty and ignorance is through education. So, he devoted the next 25 years of his life to educating young people, as a High School and Vocational woodworking and automotive shop teacher in the Wayne/Westland school district.
When Don retired from teaching in 1995 he committed the rest of his life to working with charitable organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Missionary Ventures, with whom he helped to build schools in Guatemala and Africa, in addition to which, he collected wheelchairs, walkers, crutches and medical supplied for their medical teams. For many years he served at Boysville, a correctional facility for juvenile offenders, teaching the boys how to build ramps for people with disabilities.
After Don and Gail married in 1998, they attended the Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Saline until they came to St. Clare’s. Here Don has labored, faithfully, helping to build a ramp for the Wisdom House and Sally Churchill’s home, collecting fresh corn and good stuffs for the Backdoor Food Pantry, and leading a dryer vent cleaning crew on our SOS Outreach Sundays.
But, above all of this, Environmental Conservation was Don’s true life passion! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle was his mantra and where he was happiest was turning-over his compost pile or splitting his own firewood.
Don tried always, to the best of his abilities, to be not only the hands and feet of God in this world but, also His heart. He opened himself to the needs of others and served anyone, anywhere with a humble heart.
Don was the son of Peggy and Vern Kelley and cherished younger brother of Patricia Scarlett. With her, he is fondly remembered by many nieces and nephews and their families. He was a kind and caring Step-Father to Wendy Moon (Rod White) and Julie Moon (Craig Brunton). His two Grandchildren Tyler and Allyson filled his world with the special joy and magic of childhood. Don and his Spiritual Partner, Gail are both grateful to God for all the years, the love, laughter and global adventures they shared together.
~ Amen~
A celebration of life will tentatively be postponed until Thursday, October 15, 2020 at St. Clare's Episcopal Church, 2309 Packard St., Ann Arbor. Memorial gathering from 2 pm until time of Memorial Service at 3 pm with a reception from 4-6 pm in Hall to follow.
In lieu of flowers please make donations at one of the following locations:
St. Clare’s Episcopal Church Backdoor Food Pantry, 2309 Packard St. Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, (734)662-2449
Habitat For Humanity, Huron Valley, 2805 S Industrial Highway, Suite 100, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, (734)667-1558, www.h4h.org
Heifer Project International, 1 World Ave., Little Rock, Arkansas, 72202, (885)948-6437, www.heifer.org
July 25th, 1934 – February 9th, 2020
Don was born a child of God, and chose to honor Him, by dedicating his life to the service of others. As a young boy, he first served at the altar of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Wayne, Michigan, where he attended parochial school for 12 years. As a young man, he served his county with the Air National Guard and U.S. Air Force Reserve in their aircraft maintenance squadron. He was educated at both the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University, which lead to his doing 10 years of Engineering with the Ford Motor Company. During those years that he lived in Wayne and later in Saline he worked tirelessly on countless community improvement projects.
In 1967 Don had a life-changing experience when he joined a yearlong travel log filming expedition to Central and South America. His travels in Third World countries taught him that the only way to break the cycle of poverty and ignorance is through education. So, he devoted the next 25 years of his life to educating young people, as a High School and Vocational woodworking and automotive shop teacher in the Wayne/Westland school district.
When Don retired from teaching in 1995 he committed the rest of his life to working with charitable organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Missionary Ventures, with whom he helped to build schools in Guatemala and Africa, in addition to which, he collected wheelchairs, walkers, crutches and medical supplied for their medical teams. For many years he served at Boysville, a correctional facility for juvenile offenders, teaching the boys how to build ramps for people with disabilities.
After Don and Gail married in 1998, they attended the Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Saline until they came to St. Clare’s. Here Don has labored, faithfully, helping to build a ramp for the Wisdom House and Sally Churchill’s home, collecting fresh corn and good stuffs for the Backdoor Food Pantry, and leading a dryer vent cleaning crew on our SOS Outreach Sundays.
But, above all of this, Environmental Conservation was Don’s true life passion! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle was his mantra and where he was happiest was turning-over his compost pile or splitting his own firewood.
Don tried always, to the best of his abilities, to be not only the hands and feet of God in this world but, also His heart. He opened himself to the needs of others and served anyone, anywhere with a humble heart.
Don was the son of Peggy and Vern Kelley and cherished younger brother of Patricia Scarlett. With her, he is fondly remembered by many nieces and nephews and their families. He was a kind and caring Step-Father to Wendy Moon (Rod White) and Julie Moon (Craig Brunton). His two Grandchildren Tyler and Allyson filled his world with the special joy and magic of childhood. Don and his Spiritual Partner, Gail are both grateful to God for all the years, the love, laughter and global adventures they shared together.
~ Amen~
A celebration of life will tentatively be postponed until Thursday, October 15, 2020 at St. Clare's Episcopal Church, 2309 Packard St., Ann Arbor. Memorial gathering from 2 pm until time of Memorial Service at 3 pm with a reception from 4-6 pm in Hall to follow.
In lieu of flowers please make donations at one of the following locations:
St. Clare’s Episcopal Church Backdoor Food Pantry, 2309 Packard St. Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, (734)662-2449
Habitat For Humanity, Huron Valley, 2805 S Industrial Highway, Suite 100, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104, (734)667-1558, www.h4h.org
Heifer Project International, 1 World Ave., Little Rock, Arkansas, 72202, (885)948-6437, www.heifer.org