Donald Oscar Laitinen of Salina, Kansas, fell asleep in Jesus on the evening of Wednesday, January 2, 2019.
His funeral will be held at St. Mark Lutheran Church, 2349 Ohio Street, Salina, KS, at 11:00 AM on Friday, January 11, 2019. The presiding minister will be Pastor Jeremy Laitinen. His earthly remains will be laid to rest at Hope Cemetery, in Barre, Vermont, in the joyful confidence of the resurrection of all flesh when our Lord Jesus returns.
Visitation will be at the church from 10:00 until 11:00 AM, prior to the service. Memorials may be addressed to Christ the Redeemer Lutheran Church, Barre, VT; St. Mark Lutheran Church, Salina, KS; or the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod designated for missions.
Don is survived by his wife, Viola Laitinen, a sister, Jean (Henry) Neff of Roxbury, CT, four children: Wayne (Carol) Laitinen of New Ulm, MN, Linda (Nick) DeNichilo of Scotch Plains, NJ, Joan (Dave) Kehl of Hong Kong, and Wendy (Ken) Bailey of Barre, VT, fourteen grandchildren and twenty-two great-grandchildren. Donald was preceded in death by his parents, Oscar and Marguerite (nee Goken), his first wife, Vera (nee Van Auken) (1991) and a sister, Carolyn (Joseph) Calcagni (2008).
Don’s earthly pilgrimage began in Hartford, Connecticut, on May 8, 1925. After graduation from William Henry Hall High School, West Hartford, in 1943, he served in the United States Coast Guard as a motor machinist’s mate on the destroyer escort USS Chambers until 1946. After military service, he graduated with an engineering degree from Hillyer College in 1948 (now the University of Hartford). From college he was employed by Henry Reynolds building specification homes.
Donald married Vera Van Auken on October 7, 1950. The Lord blessed them with four children. After the death of his first wife in 1991, Don married Viola Frost.
He worked 16 years at Pratt and Whitney Aircraft in East Hartford, CT. In 1970 he earned a master’s degree in industrial hygiene from the University of Michigan, specializing in respiratory diseases. Don worked at the Continental Insurance Company in New York City until 1973 when he moved his family to Barre, Vermont, to work for the Vermont Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Always a woodworker, Don spent many hours after work building his family’s first home, fashioning furniture, remodeling living spaces and volunteering as a handyman for projects at his church and for people in need. Throughout his life he demonstrated a strong love for his country.
Don was privileged to proclaim his Savior with words of encouragement and by serving in various church offices over the years. He imprinted on his family a love for their Savior, a deep appreciation of salvation by God’s grace alone and a desire for the heavenly glory which is ours only through Christ’s death and resurrection. To God be the glory!
