Donald Warren Andrews

Memorial services will be held on Friday, January 16, 2009 at 4 PM at Peterson-Johnson Funeral Home in Milaca with Rev. Don Smith officiating. Visiation will be one hour prior to the service at the funeral home on Friday. Donald Warren Andrews was born July 17, 1921, in Akron Colorado, the eldest of 3 sons born to Harley Nathan Andrews and Mabel Ida (Jackson) Andrews. He moved with his parents to Sioux Falls, SD, and later to Omaha Nebraska where he graduated from Omaha Technical High School in 1939. He joined the Army Air Corps and served as an aircraft mechanic in California, Arizona and the Philippines during World War II. While in California he met Emogene Ora Diefenbach, who was working at a McDonald-Douglas factory. They were married on January 22, 1943, in Kingman, Arizona. When he went to the Philippines, she returned to her home in Lexington NE. When he returned from the service he joined her in Lexington. There he worked as an auto mechanic, then had his own floor installation business before going to college on the GI bill. He completed his college degree in 2 ½ years at Kearney State Teachers College while working full time as a mechanic at a gas station to support his family. After completing his bachelor's degree he taught industrial arts in Arnold and Hastings NE. During this time he completed a Masters degree in four summers at Colorado A & M in Fort Collins, CO, taking his family with him each summer. Later he ran a garage in Trumbull NE for 8 years before accepting a position teaching auto mechanics at St. Cloud AVTI in St. Cloud MN in 1965. He taught there for 15 years, until his retirement in 1980. During his teaching years, he often held a second job as a working mechanic, such as at the International Harvester dealer in Hastings and with a road construction company in St. Cloud. Upon his retirement, he and Emogene moved to Wabasso MN to be near their daughter Margaret and her family. In 2003 they moved to Caley House in Princeton MN to be near their son Chuck, and later to the Foley Nursing Center. Don died at St. Cloud Hospital on January 12 after a brief illness. His leisure interests included restoring antique automobiles, amateur radio, listening to classical music, bicycling, birds and the outdoors. In 1976 he bicycled from Oregon to Virginia with his son, Bob, as part of BikeCentennial, riding the last 800 miles with a broken collarbone after a crash in Kentucky. He was a member of the Marshall (MN) Radio Club for 20 years. While in St. Cloud he and Emogene were regulars at the Methodist church, and continued at the Methodist church in Wabasso until it closed. Dad was a kidder who occasionally like to tell stories, preferably of uncertain truth content. The ones about George and his big, black dog were pure fiction for grandkids' entertainment, and probably the ones about his days as a race car driver were too. But we think he maybe did have his first job frying donuts at a donut shop when he was 13, and that he probably did drive a coal truck up and down the icy hills of Omaha as a teen-ager making deliveries. The kidding continued at the nursing home, where when given his med cup, he'd wait until the nurse's back was turned to quick take the pills, then when she turned around he'd pretend to toss them out of the cup over his shoulder. And last Saturday at the St. Cloud Hospital, when Bob told him that he was there because he had taken a big fall at the nursing home, Dad, who next to never drank at all, replied, ¨yeah, I was drinking too much.¨ Don's life was characterized by a high regard for justice and fair play, and he was always more impressed by a person's character than their position. He would stand up to an Army officer in defense of a fellow soldier who had been treated unfairly, even if it meant losing a stripe. He helped see to it that an African American student was accepted into the college student association in spite of the advisor's opposition. He taught auto mechanics, a subject that many students came to because they had not succeeded in other academic areas, but every student started Don's class with a clean slate. Don was also a dedicated conservationist, giving countless hours in support of efforts to improve air and water quality and to promote legislation that would help ensure a healthy environment for future generations. He is survived by Emogene, his wife of 65 years; two sons, Charles (Linda) Andrews of Princeton MN and Robert (Karen) Andrews of Rochester MN; one daughter, Margaret Andrews, of Sitka, Alaska; 8 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents and two brothers. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials to The Nature Conservancy or to the Marshall Radio Club, 1007 Pine Street, Marshall, MN 56258