Donald Marvin Nettleton

March 12, 1940 ~ April 14, 2012The life of Don Nettleton will be celebrated at a memorial to be held on Sunday, May 20th, at 2 pm at the Northshore United Church of Christ in Woodinville. Don died peacefully on April 14th at Evergreen Hospice, surrounded by his wife of 52 years, Jane and his 3 children Brian, Scott, and Jennifer. Born in Eugene, Oregon to Violet and Marvin Nettleton, Don and his two brothers grew up in Salem, Oregon. The family was active in the Congregational Church, where Don met his future wife Jane in Sunday School; but it wasn’t until she asked him to the Junior/Senior Prom in high school that they had their first date. Don worked summer jobs at the local cannery for money to buy his 1948 Plymouth coup for $50. He started at the Oregon College of Education, and during his 2nd year, he and Jane got married on January 15, 1960. The next two summers, the couple worked at a US Forest Service fire lookout, where, when their first son was born during the second summer, Don washed many a tub of diapers by hand. For the next few years, Don worked in the grocery business, until he returned to college at Oregon State University to earn a degree in Forest Management in 1970. He then joined the Northern Pacific Railroad’s resources division in Longview, then Seattle, and then Missoula, Montana, working his way up to become Assistant Vice President at Burlington Northern Resources. In 1984, Don was transferred back to Seattle, where he worked for what was then Plum Creek Timber until retirement in June 2002. During his 32-year forestry career, Don was involved with many land exchanges with the U.S. Forest Service, and helped write laws governing exchanges subsequently passed in the US Congress. He also played an important part in creating what is now a national monument: After Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980, Don was involved with the donation of the top of the mountain—then owned by Plum Creek—to the federal government.Although he was an important and busy businessman, Don Nettleton quietly and humbly also had a big impact on the towns where he lived. He was president of the Kiwanis Club in Missoula, then active (including two terms as president) of the Northshore Kiwanis. He was an integral member of the Northshore United Church of Christ (UCC), and also was very active in the Pacific Northwest Conference of the UCC, chairing its Board for two terms. For six years, he served on the Board of Directors at the Horizon House in Seattle.When not working or volunteering, Don could be found camping with the family on weekends, fly-fishing in the middle of a stream, and later he and Jane took off often with their travel trailer. He was an avid gardener, a builder—of gazebo, deck, waterfall—and “Mr. Fix It” until his Alzheimer’s Disease robbed him of his many skills. He and Jane moved in 2008 into the Emerald Heights community in Redmond, where Jane has been enormously grateful for the wonderful care Don received as his disease progressed. Don is survived by his brother Allan (wife Aileen), his wife Jane, and children Brian (wife Joylene and daughters Margaret and Wendy); Scott (wife Claire and children Eric Riley, Sean, and Caroline); and daughter Jennifer Wilmoth (husband Kevin and children Stephanie Yoshida and Austin Shields). As befit his life of quiet work, volunteering and long friend-ships, his last weeks at the Evergreen Hospice were filled with visits from family and friends coming from all over the country to show their love and respect for this giant of a man. The family invites friends to join them for the memorial of Don’s life, and/or to give a donation in his honor to the Northshore Kiwanis club, Northshore United Church of Christ, or the Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s Association.