Donald Taylor Pitman

1939 - 2023

Donald Taylor Pitman was born on Oct. 25, 1939, in West Orange, N.J. He passed away on Aug. 25, 2023.
He was the second son of Esther Sherman Pitman and Walter Pitman, and the younger brother of Walter C. Pitman III, geophysicist. He attended Morristown Prep, graduated from Lawrenceville, and earned his B.A. from Lehigh University in 1962.
While living in New York City and working on Wall Street, he met Janet Dodenhoff, a high school English teacher from Detroit, and they were married in 1968. Four years later, the couple moved to New Jersey, where they purchased and renovated the historic building Red Men's Hall, located at 1 Church Street in Rumson.
The building, which had served as Rumson's first schoolhouse and later as a meeting hall for The Red Men's Association, had been vacant and for sale for several years. After refurbishing the building, Donald was able to establish his antique restoration business, Once Removed. The two-story building also served as a home for Donald and Janet and eventually their daughter, Melissa, whom they adopted from Korea in 1983 when she was one year old.
Donald salvaged and refinished thousands of antiques in his workshop – everything from regular dressers and chairs to unusual sleigh beds, clocks, church pews, and large wooden statues. He also employed many local teenagers and trained them to work with others and to turn damaged furniture into beautiful and usable items. It was always one of Janet and Donald's strong wishes that the building at 1 Church St. be kept as an historic treasure, and just two years ago, the Pitmans were able to sell the building to a like-minded new owner who has continued to make this a reality.
Donald was a local fixture, who could be found getting his usual sandwich every day at Butler's Deli, wearing his too-realistic pirate costume on his porch each Halloween, or having a beer at Murphy's or Carton. He also always found time to give extensive walks to his beloved golden retrievers, five in 35 years, and to talk to people everywhere along the streets of Rumson.
Throughout his life, Donald enjoyed the out of doors, playing ice hockey, fishing, boating, skiing, and running. And though he had spent his early years body surfing in Bay Head, N.J., he later learned to appreciate the gentler qualities of Lake Huron in Oscoda, where again, he walked his dogs and made many friends.
He was also an avid reader of a vast array of books from the Harry Potter series to biographies of great men, most recently, And There Was Light by Jon Meacham.
One of Don's major passions throughout his life was astronomy. He was always ready with telescopes for any major eclipse, transit, or sighting, and he utilized advanced equipment well and explained celestial phenomena in a clear and understandable way. He even created his own telescope mirror, which took many hours of polishing and testing to achieve.
Perhaps his greatest fascination, though, was with sea life. He was an active scuba diver from the early development of diving equipment in the 1950s until his last trip to the Galapagos Islands seven years ago. He logged over 500 dives and took thousands of underwater pictures.
Donald is survived by his wife, Janet Pitman; his daughter, Melissa Pitman; his son-in-law, Yongseok Seo; and three grandchildren, Remi, Rina, and Ruby Seo. He enjoyed life with dignity and grace, and he was ever gentle and kind.