The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

Donald Gene Salyards died peacefully at 1:15 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 5, 2020 at Heritage Point in Mishawaka, Ind. following a brief illness at the age of 89.

Don was born on Feb. 6, 1931 in Haxtun to Clyde and Maude (Holmes) Salyards. He grew up during the Depression in several small farming towns in Colorado including Littleton and Eaton. He started working after school at a young age and was always very resourceful. His numerous jobs included working in his Dad's blacksmith shop, helping at his Mom and aunt's café, melting down lead type for the newspaper, bagging groceries and harvesting cantaloupes and beets in the fields during World War II. Later, he worked on his Uncle Harold's farm, helped vaccinate sheep, cleaned the beet factory floors, drove a truck for the wheat harvest from North Dakota to Texas, worked on oil rigs in Wyoming and cut down train boxcars with a torch for the junkyard.

He was the valedictorian of the Eaton High School Class of 1948 and enjoyed returning to see his old classmates at the EHS summer reunions. He earned a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Colorado in 1952, graduating with highest honors. He took his first job at Phillips Petroleum Co. in Texas, where he worked as a design engineer in the Rocket Fuels division.

Don joined General Electric as an engineer in 1956, where he proudly worked for nearly 35 years. He began his career working on an experimental nuclear-propelled aircraft in Schenectady, New York, San Jose, Calif., and eventually Cincinnati, Ohio before transferring to the GE Aircraft Engines division in 1970, where he worked until his retirement as a senior engineer in 1991. His passion was doing hands-on work in the laboratory and he spent most of his career stress testing jet engine components. Don was also a local chairman of the Society for Experimental Mechanics and a member of the Pi Tau Sigma mechanical engineering fraternity.

Don served in the United States Army from 1954-1956 at the Rossford Ordinance Depot in Toledo, Ohio. He made many lifelong friends during his service and they continued to meet for reunions over the years in various U.S. cities.

While he was stationed in Toledo, he met the love of his live, Rose Marie (Hetzelberger). They were married on April 7, 1956 at St. Mary's Church in Tiffin, Ohio. They made their home in Cincinnati, where they celebrated 41 wonderful years together before her passing on Aug. 13, 1997. They loved having potlucks with their neighborhood friends, going to concerts and traveling. They took trips all over the United States, Europe, the Caribbean, Canada and Mexico - always choosing their flights based on the reliability of the plane's engines. They especially enjoyed their regular visits to Colorado, Germany and her family's farm in Tiffin. However, their greatest joy was raising their daughter, Jill.

Don was a parishioner at All Saints Church in Cincinnati for 50 years and was a current parishioner of St. Joseph Catholic Church in South Bend, Ind. He loved singing in church and had a beautiful tenor voice.

Following his retirement, Don remained active in GE historical groups and community service programs, serving as a historian and volunteer photographer for the Elfun Society and coordinating the annual POPSEE reunion picnic. He also served as the president of the Metallic Club, a retired men's lunch-and-lecture group and enjoyed delivering magazines to the VA hospital and doing trail maintenance for the Cincinnati Parks.

His hobbies included photography, travel, golf, genealogy research, playing cards, "sprucing things up" around the yard and tinkering in his well-equipped workshop. He was an original recycler long before it gained popularity - he was always repurposing things, crushing aluminum cans and saving raw materials for a future project. He enjoyed walking three to 12 miles every day, waving at everyone he met along the way and often stopping for a visit with his neighbors. He had a special love for the beauty of nature, particularly hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Most of all, Don loved being a grandad to his two grandchildren. He spent countless hours diving for stray footballs, taking them for imaginary stagecoach rides, hanging from the monkey bars at the playground, sneaking in ice cream before bedtime and cheering them on at school events.

Don is survived by his daughter Jill and husband Jacob Mark, Mishawaka, Ind .; grandchildren Sophie Mark, Chicago, Ill. and Sam Mark, Indiana; sister LaVon Berger, Texas, nephews Paul Neal and Glenn and wife Gaye Neal, Colorado, and Alan and wife Julie Berger, Texas; and several cousins, grandnieces and grandnephews.

He is preceded in death by his parents; sister Bernadelle "Bernie" Neal; brothers-in-law Beal Neal and Hugh Berger; and close friends Thelma Pennington and Kay Fette.

Don's family in Haxtun was especially dear to him because of the double family marriages of the two Salyards brothers, Lloyde and Clyde to two Holmes sisters from a nearby farm, Anna and Maude. He loved his many Salyards cousins: Stanley and wife Katherine, Maxine and husband Ned Daniel, Everett and wife Betty, Elden and wife Fern, Kenneth and wife Lily, Melvin and wife Roberta and Jack and wife Shirley.

The family of Donald Salyards will have a private funeral liturgy, followed by Committal Rites at St. Joseph Catholic Church Cemetery in Tiffin. A celebration of his life in South Bend and a memorial mass and reception at All Saints Church in Cincinnati, Ohio will be held when public health conditions improve.

Contributions in memory of Don may be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place, Memphis, TN 38105 or the Cincinnati Parks Foundation, 421 Oak Street, Cincinnati, OH 45219. Online condolences may be expressed at http://www.halbritterwickens.com.