Donald Freeman

Donald Freeman passed away on July 9 at the age of 90. He was born in Philadelphia in 1931 to Matthew Freeman and Paula Weiss Freeman, and had a brother, Lenny. His parents divorced when he was quite young, and over the next several years he rarely was in one place for very long, moving between his two parents, a foster home, and several boarding schools in Philadelphia, Virginia, and New Jersey. Eventually he ended up back in Philadelphia for high school, and then attended college at Penn State, majoring in Physics for two years until his money ran out. He was part of the swim team in both high school and college, beginning what was to become a lifelong pursuit. In 1950 Don enlisted in the Air Force, where he was trained in airplane mechanics and then stationed at McDill Air Force Base in Florida. He competed in swim meets and managed the base swimming pools while at McDill. He shipped out to Okinawa in 1952 and continued to work as an airplane mechanic (in support of the Korean War), while also developing an interest in photography. He learned how to use the base darkroom to develop the photographs he took as he traveled to many of the local villages and got to know some of the people there. His service ended in 1954, and Don then traveled to the Los Angeles area, where he became an engineering trainee with Douglas Aircraft and subsequently worked at Edwards Air Force Base. He met his wife Dorothy at a dance in Beverly Hills during this time, and they were married in 1957. Over the next several years, he and Dorothy had four sons while Don worked as a test engineer in the aerospace industry in southern California, including being a part of the Apollo 11 command module testing team. In 1969 the family moved to Littleton, where he began working for Martin Marietta. Around this time Don began to slowly lose his eyesight due to a rare hereditary disease that shut off the blood supply to his retinas, and after a few years he was declared to be legally blind. With some special training and equipment, he was able to make the switch to computer programming and continue to work at Martin Marietta for several more years, but he eventually had to take a disability retirement after an injury caused him to lose motor control in his hands. Don did not let his disabilities prevent him from finding other pursuits, however. After working hard to learn how to effectively access government services for himself, he began to help others with disabilities cut through the bureaucratic red tape and obtain the help they were entitled to, and he was honored by the Littleton City Council in 1992 for his many years of volunteer service. In addition to his advocacy work, Don made regular use of the federal Talking Book Program, which provides free recorded reading material of all kinds, allowing him to read a wide variety of books and articles (he particularly enjoyed history). He also loved music, especially big band, jazz piano and classical, and spent many hours recording from the radio onto cassette tapes so he could listen to his favorites at any time. Don also continued to swim regularly, competing in the Masters program for older adults and swimming laps at his local YMCA (where everyone seemed to know him) until he was nearly 80. After living in their Littleton home for 45 years, Don and Dorothy moved into assisted living together in 2015, where Dorothy passed away in 2017. Don is survived by his four sons Matt (Judy), David (Mary Beth), Mark (Kelli), and Bob (Amy), his seven grandsons (Justin, Jamey, Cameron, Taylor, Nathan, Ben, and Ryan) and three greatgrandchildren, as well as several nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Friends of Colorado Talking Book Library at https://www.friendsofctbl.org/form.htm or the Agape Healthcare Foundation (make checks out to Agape Healthcare Foundation, with “donation in memory of Donald Freeman” in the memo line, and mail to: Agape Healthcare, 6041 S. Syracuse Way, Suite 220, Greenwood Village, CO 80111)