Don was born in Toledo, Ohio on March 19th, 1931 to Walter and Gladys Spear. He was a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, sailor, artist of photography, cyclist, teacher, and leader. His service as an officer in the US Army and Air Force Reserves inspired all of his sons to also serve our nation. He is dearly missed by his four children: Nancy Hans, Donald S. Spear (Lieutenant, US Navy) , Scot Spear (Captain, US Marine Corp), Jeffrey Spear (Lieutenant Colonel, US Air Force (retired)), their spouses, and his nine grandchildren.
Don graduated early from Waite High School, Class of 1949, and then completed a two-year course of study at The Fred Archer School of Photography in Los Angeles, California. Upon completion, he returned to Toledo, joined the US Army Reserve Officer Training Corps and earned his Bachelor of Arts and Master’s degrees in Business Administration at the University of Toledo. After graduation he was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the US Army and assigned to the Signal Corps.
In 1955, he married Deloris A. Spear. Don and Deloris lived in many cities across the United States, as they raised their family of four children. Don was the best father his children could imagine: loving, smart, creative, hardworking, even-keeled, and adventurous. He loved sailing and when the opportunity to move to Maryland arose, he took it. For over 30 years, the family discovered and enjoyed all that Annapolis and the Chesapeake Bay had to offer.
In 1967, while working full-time at the National Association of Home Builders, Don also took evening classes at American University towards his PhD, and founded a market research business in the family basement: Construction Marketing Research (CMR) Associates. CMR continued to grow throughout the 1970s, and eventually became Lehman-Spear Information Systems (LSI Incorporated). In 1986, he sold LSI to the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. Don and Deloris jointly retired in 1989. Soon after, he earned his US Coast Guard 50-Ton Captain’s License. With that certification, Don served as a volunteer sailing coach at the US Naval Academy, where he taught midshipmen to sail in the open seas from Annapolis to Nantucket, and to Bermuda.
Additionally, Don and Deloris embarked on a 20+ year retirement adventure traveling the world together - China, Japan, Thailand, France, England, Germany, Italy, Austria and India - often visiting their adult children and greeting new grandchildren. From 1997 to 2009, they resided in Green Valley, AZ; before moving to Raleigh, NC to be closer to their son Jeffrey, and daughter Nancy.
Sadly, in 2012, Don lost his wife of 57 years to Alzheimer’s Disease. Despite this loss, he continued to fill his life with many travels, including some exotic places like Prague, Egypt and Dubai, with his son Scot. He continued his global adventures biking with his children and grandchildren in the Czech Republic, visits to his grandchildren in the Netherlands and a wonderful cruise down the Rhine with his son Don. At the beginning of the COVID pandemic in 2020, he moved to Austin, TX to live safely with Don’s family, and then eventually transitioned into his own apartment in early 2021. At the time of his passing, he was a very active member of the Atria Senior Living Community in Austin, including monthly exhibits of his 70+ years of photography.
Throughout his professional life and during his retirement, Don was a life-long learner and always engaged his mind. He had a zest for growing, and constantly strived to do new and different activities. In addition to his love of photography, he became an avid cyclist at the ripe young age of 60, and then spent 30 years biking and triking thousands of miles each year. In 2013 at age 82, he became a “Burner” and joined the Burning Man community at its annual event in Nevada. He attended the event for seven consecutive years, enjoying the free-spirited environment and relishing in the virtually limitless photo and video opportunities. Always looking for the next adventure, he was already making big plans to bike the C&O Canal in Maryland and attend Burning Man in 2022. His passion for daring to dream, organizing to do, then actually doing it (pushing the potato), will live on through his family and friends.
A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 10am EST, at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 7000 Creedmoor Road, Raleigh, NC. Internment, in the church’s columbarium, will follow the service. A memorial bike ride/hike around Lake Shelly will be held the next day.
You may attend the service remotely via this YouTube Channel link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7D3A4J3WJU
You may leave your condolences on this webpage:
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/austin-tx/donald-spear-10505009
In lieu of flowers, you may make donations to the “Deloris A. Spear Center for Excellence in Teaching” at The International School of Portland, using this direct link:
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