Donald W. Carlson peacefully passed from this Earth on February 5, 2025. He was proud to have reached his 92nd birthday (30 years longer than each of his parents). If sheer determination were all that counted, he would have reached 100!
Don was born in Janesville, Wisconsin and grew up as an only child, his parents’ pride and joy. He loved cars and Cushmans growing up, so heading to Purdue University for a mechanical engineering degree made great sense. It turned just about perfect when he met his best friend and love of his life, Lilyan Walker, who was earning her degree in Home Economics at Purdue. Their courtship was interrupted by a draft notice directing Don to report for duty during the Korean War. An allergy to eggs kept him from serving oversees, and skirting the rules of a typing test resulted in him being a company clerk at Fort Benning, Georgia for the remainder of his service. Following his honorable discharge from the Army, he returned to marry Lilyan. She got her first teaching job, and he finished his degree at Chicago Technical Institute.
New jobs, a new house and their first daughter, Susan, came soon after with the family moving to Belleville, Michigan before daughter Carol was born. Don found his niche with Ford Motor Company where he was an engineer, inventor, plant manager and all-around solver of problems. He earned numerous patents while he worked for Ford and was very proud of them all. His final project with Ford was designing and building a completely automated factory to machine exhaust manifolds. He never liked to do the same thing twice, so inventing and developing new and unique ways to manufacture was where his mind really hummed. His family could always tell by the look in his eye when he was working something through, coming up with a “bullet-proof” solution.
While that work would have kept a regular man busy, Don was no regular guy. He dedicated evenings and weekends to his two favorite hobbies: excavating and politics. After spending the week at a drafting board or in a factory checking in with each shift in a 24-hour cycle, he wanted to be outside and in a ditch on the weekends. Together with his heavy equipment operator, Joe, Don repaired or replaced countless septic systems, water lines, and sewer lines all over town. This helped him get to know a lot of different people in Van Buren County and understand the impact government was having on people. His political career included running campaigns for friends and eventually serving on the Belleville City Counsel for several terms.
Retirement led Don and Lilyan to move to South Carolina where they continued to live on a lake, enjoy boating, water skiing, and no snow blowing! Don built a machine shop in Chapin, South Carolina, where he managed to fix anything that anyone brought to him. He loved the challenge and enjoyed getting to know and help so many people.
In 2019, Don and Lilyan returned to Michigan where they moved into a retirement community in Grand Rapids. They enjoyed the Covenant Living Community, and Don especially enjoyed the wood shop where he rebuilt a lathe for the guys.
Through it all, Don loved to work hard, think hard, and share with his family. Don loved to travel, and shared this love with his family, taking Lilyan, Susan, and Carol on several trips to Europe, including his favorite Viking River Cruises in Germany. Don was very proud of his daughters, making sure to tell everyone that one of them was a retired high school principal and the other a judge – asking the strangers to guess which was which! Success was imbued to them both from an early age when they were taught to work harder than anyone else, be the first one there in the morning and the last one at night, and always trust your gut.
Don is survived by a proud family, including his wife of 69 ½ years, Lilyan (Walker) Carlson; his daughters, Susan Carlson and Carol Shaw (Cate Shaw); his grandchildren, William Snyder (Geori), Connor Carlson, Griffin Shaw, and Bella Shaw; and his great-granddaughters, Natalie and Claire.
Don’s fiscally conservative directive was to be cremated and have his ashes spread in some of his favorite places. The family will celebrate his life privately. If you feel so compelled, a donation to your local vocational/technical high school, in Don’s name, would be a great way to honor his skill and his commitment to education