Donald R. Skudstad

1932 - 2013

Donald R. Skudstad
Donald Richard Skudstad, born Jan. 22, 1932, in Superior, Wis., to Henry and Eva Elizabeth Skudstad, passed away peacefully Aug. 12, 2013, at home.
Interment was in the Brigham City, Utah, cemetery. A memorial service will be in the chapel at the corner of Home Avenue and Martin Street of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Monday, Aug. 26, 2013, at 11 a.m.
Starting at age 5, Don helped his grandparents on their dairy farm in Wisconsin in the summers so he could go fishing with his uncle Bob.
He graduated from Superior High School in 1950 and learned to sing in the Lutheran Church choir.
He lived with his uncle Bob and Jan Hougas while he attended Wisconsin University until he graduated with a bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering. He served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Reserves as a first lieutenant from 1956 to 1963.
He worked for the Gisholt Machine Company for 10 years and then pursued further education at the University of Utah, where he met his wife Donna Eugenia Wheelwright and married her in the Salt Lake Temple in 1967. He later went on to Ohio State University, where he earned his Ph.D. in manufacturing engineering in 1971.
He has taught engineering courses at Ohio State University, Utah State University, University of Utah and Oregon Institute of Technology. At OIT, he was hired as associate dean over the departments of manufacturing, diesel, auto mechanics, welding and gunsmithing. He also taught the upper division courses in manufacturing engineering technology for 20 years. He helped a very high percentage of his students get jobs, especially in the aircraft industry (Boeing and Northrop) by working with employers and designing the coursework to specifically meet their needs with a lot of hands-on experience. This made the students job-ready and the employers didn't have to do a lot of training. He was very active in the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, helping his students to win awards.
His hobbies included basketball, trout fishing, and visiting with friends. He loved to play basketball and was affectionately known as the "Hammer" by his basketball buddies for all the three-point long shots he routinely made. He played until his 81st birthday.
He loved doing missionary service as a seventy in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He helped to build the Madison, Wis., chapel. He served on the stake high council, as a bishop, as a counselor in two other bishoprics in Klamath Falls and as a temple worker. He gave many hours of humanitarian service at the church's apple orchard in Ohio and the Medford Pear Orchard. He did genealogical research for himself and his friends. He also gave 36 pints of blood to the American Red Cross.
He loved to go trout fishing at Rocky Point on Upper Klamath Lake and mounted his 12-1/2 lbs. catch on his living room wall. Some of his closest friends were Hal and Barbara Hovorka, Ralph and Betty Dauster, Ernie and Fay Wetzel, Frank and Debbie Grant, Jim and Sandy Anderson, Alan and Faye Caldwell, and the list goes on and on.
He is survived by his wife, Donna; his daughter, Bonnie Eugenia (Mark) Holmquist; his son, John Henry Skudstad; his grandchildren, Daniel, John, Ammon, Rachel, Matthew, Joshua, and Jacob Holmquist; brother-in-law Bert Cundick, brother-in-law Lynn (Melva) Wheelwright, sister-in-law Mona Lowe, aunt Lillian Skudstad and many cousins.
No flowers, please.
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