Donald Lauren Kelsey

May 18, 1932 - January 12, 2025

Donald Lauren Kelsey was born on May 18, 1932, to Lauren Robert Kelsey and Jessie Aleen (Marshall) Kelsey in Kansas City, Missouri.

As an only child, he loved going to his grandparents' farm. He liked to fish, and he would roller skate every weekend. Upon completion of high school, he attended a couple of semesters of college, then joined the Air Force and went through basic training in Texas. From Texas, he went to North Carolina, where they learned that he knew how to take shorthand, and because of that skill, he began working for the Office of Special Investigations. While he was in North Carolina, the Major that took his bunkmate to church invited Don to go as well, and he began attending regularly with them. He applied to transfer to the Office of Special Investigations in Washington, DC and was, subsequently, transferred there. When the Educational Director at the church he attended in North Carolina heard he was leaving, she mentioned that her uncle was the Educational Director at a church in DC not too far from Bolling Air Force Base where he was stationed. She suggested he check out that church. In his own "man of few words" kind of way, he said, "I did, met Jeanne, and as they say, 'The rest is history.'"

Don and Jeanne were married about five months later, on November 28, 1953, and they remained very involved with the older youth at Fountain Memorial Baptist Church. They made many lifelong friends during their time in Washington, DC. Susan was born there, and after Don was discharged from the Air Force, he returned to college in Columbia, Missouri, attaining his degree in Mechanical Engineering. They welcomed the birth of their second child, Bill, in Columbia. After Don's graduation, the family moved from Missouri to New York where he began working for IBM and Jeanne enjoyed being a stay-at-home mom to Susan, Bill, and Beth, who was born in New York. While living there in New York, Don and Jeanne helped to start the Vassar Road Baptist Church.

In 1966, he transferred to Colorado, where he continued to work for IBM and, later, for Storage Technology Corporation. They transferred again in 1986—this time without their children who had all grown up by this time—to Florida, and they lived there for four years, before transferring back to Colorado. Throughout the course of his career, he traveled in Europe, and Jeanne was able to join him on several of his trips after the kids were grown!

After they both retired, they really enjoyed traveling in their motorhome and spending time with each of their kids and their families. They enjoyed being snowbirds in Arizona during the winters. While they were in Missouri, they built an apartment over the garage at the farm there with Beth and Greg, and that became their "home base" during their traveling days. Beth and Greg sold the farm in Missouri in 2005 and moved to Montana for six years. Sue sold her house in Heatherwood and bought the house on Clover Basin where Don and Jeanne lived in the basement apartment. Don enjoyed his massive workshop with all his woodworking equipment, and he made a lot of beautiful furniture, and could always find a way to create and/or fix whatever someone needed! In addition to his woodworking, he loved his family and friends, his dogs, music, math games, gardening, driving around (whether it was up in the mountains of Colorado, visiting the old homeplaces in Missouri, or just exploring...), and he definitely enjoyed fried apples, his daily chai, and sweets of any sort! He also took great delight in torturing everyone as he painstakingly and s-l-o-w-l-y opened his birthday and Christmas packages!

After Jeanne's death in 2019, Don eventually decided to move home with Beth and Greg on their farm in Missouri. He made that transition in March of 2021, and lived there until his death. He always loved the farm, and there were many good conversations as he sat outside on the patio until the free-range chickens made so much racket that it was impossible to hear each other anymore!

Throughout their lives, wherever Don and Jeanne were living, they have always been actively involved in the lives of others: from helping to start churches as young adults to visiting with Bill's family when they were stationed in the United States while in the Navy. They are fondly remembered for attending plays, games, scouting events, and celebrations with the local CO and MO grandkids (and eventually, the great grandkids!), and less appreciated, albeit fondly recalled, Grandpa's help with math homework. They enjoyed starting a Bible Study with some Czech Republican immigrants that came to Missouri on work visas, and participating in many years of Saturday night pizza, or family dinners, from Missouri to Colorado!

Other special memories include cruises with lifelong friends, Hawaiian vacations, an Alaskan cruise and a Caribbean cruise ("Sister Trips" with Beth and Sue), and lots of game nights! Even after moving back to Missouri in 2021, he made weekly visits with Beth to Sarah's family where he established infamous 30-minute-turns at Scrabble!

He embraced Jeanne's family from the beginning, and they became his family too! Lots of special memories there in Virginia where they'd stay in the guest cottage next to the home where Jeanne grew up and enjoy time on Queen's Creek and the East River, New Point Lighthouse, boating, fishing, crabbing, and the huge family get-togethers with all the cousins and the traditional fried fish, corn cakes, and crab cakes (his very favorite)!

He experienced many challenges in his life, including the deaths of his grandparents and parents, his son-in-law Paul (in 2001), their only son Bill (in 2008), and the greatest loss of all when Jeanne died in 2019. As his memory failed in his final years, and the cancer grew, he was so blessed and thankful to be able to remain with his family in Missouri who lovingly cared for him until the Lord took him home.

He is survived by his daughters, Sue (Jim), Beth (Greg), and Bill's wife, Teri, 29 grandchildren (because the in-law children are just as much family as the original kids), and 49 great-grandchildren, as well as all the dearly loved nieces and nephews, cousins and "adopted" Colorado Saturday night family dinner kids that consider him their Grandpa Don too!

Though he is no longer with us here on earth, we know that for those who have trusted Christ as their Savior, death is not the end. As a 12-year-old, Don recognized his sin, understood the love of God that caused Him to send His only Son to die in his place, and received the gift of salvation He offered. As Don would be the first to acknowledge, he had ups and downs in his Christian life, and he once shared that he constantly fought with the issue of staying out of the way so God could lead in his life. Now though, he is rejoicing in the presence of the Lord he loved, with Jeanne and all those who have gone before, and without a doubt, his deepest desire is that each of those who loved him would know and trust the Lord as their Savior too, and to know that one day we will see each other again and worship the Lord together for all eternity.