Donald L. Levin

Don grew up the eldest of three children in St. Louis. He received his undergraduate degree in engineering from Washington University, where he joined the ROTC program and where he met his wife Nancy at the university’s Hillel House. He was stationed at Ladd Air Force Base after graduating, and the newly married couple moved to Fairbanks, Alaska, where their first daughter, Adrienne, was born.

They moved back to St. Louis soon after and had two more children, Hillary and David. Don received his master’s degree in business administration from St. Louis University and began working at Anheuser-Busch, where he was a national manager of operations and planning. He then joined Jewish Hospital of St. Louis and BJC Health System, where he retired in 1998 as the vice president of development. Under his leadership, the hospital raised more than $65 million for research and patient care.

Through the years, Don was involved with many groups and charitable organizations. He was president of the St. Louis chapter of the National Society of Fundraising Executives and a member of its national board, a member of the board of directors at Temple Shaare Emeth, an elected member to the Board of Education in University City, chairman of his neighborhood’s board of trustees, a member of the Interfaith Partnership of Metropolitan St. Louis and an officer of the board of directors for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.

Don was an avid fisherman, golfer and nature enthusiast — he loved grilling on the back brick patio that he built by hand, where he could often be found watching the deer and wildlife that grazed in his wooded backyard. He took great joy in passing those passions to his grandchildren, teaching them to golf on the strip of putting green in his bedroom and to fish at the pond near his house.

He was preceded in death by his wife Nancy Fleischmann Levin; his parents, Henry Levin and Babette Levin Birenbaum; his stepbrother Steven (Marsha) Birenbaum; and his son-in-law, Robert Lee Coleman, Jr.

He is survived by his wife, Suzanne Merriman Levin; his children, Adrienne Levin Coleman, Hillary Levin and David (Cynthia) Levin; his sisters, Elaine Unell and Marilyn Brown; his stepbrothers Robert (Vicki) Birenbaum and Kenneth (Sandra) Birenbaum; and many loving grandchildren, nieces, nephews, stepchildren, cousins and friends.

Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on July 30 at Congregation Shaare Emeth, followed by a graveside service at Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in Chesterfield.

Memorial contributions can be made to the Nancy Levin Preschool Fund at Shaare Emeth.