Donald Winfield Sibrel

1935 - 2025

Donald Winfield Sibrel died in Huntington Beach, California on September 25, 2025 from complications of old age. He lived a full and busy 90-year life and remained active, from sunrise to sunset, until just a few months before his death.

Don was born in Moline, Illinois on June 17, 1935, an only child, to Oscar Winfield Sibrel, Jr. and Eva Elizabeth McMullen. Both parents were descendants of American Revolution Patriots. In 4th grade, his family moved to Chillicothe, Illinois where he had a Midwest upbringing and enjoyed lots of time outdoors and trips to Chicago for baseball games. Don was athletic and excelled at virtually every school sport. He was also gifted in math. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he turned down a football scholarship so that he could study engineering. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from this university. He then joined the Air Force, where he was stationed in various countries over a 20-year career, primarily working as a B-52 Electronic Warfare Officer as part of the Strategic Air Command. While stationed in Biloxi, Mississippi, he met his first wife Sylvia Claire Hebert. During his time in the Air Force, he earned a Masters of Electrical Engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology, and a Masters of Mathematics at St. Mary's in San Antonio. Don was also part of the Aero Club when he was stationed in Chile and enjoyed piloting Aeroncas. While in the Air Force, Don always had some flight meals on hand at home which he would give to his kids and their friends for lunch. The first time he did so, his kids were embarrassed until the neighborhood kids said, "Cool! Astronaut food!" After retiring from the Air Force, he moved to Nashville and taught math for 19 years at Nashville State Technical Institute (now named Nashville State Community College) where he was head of the Math and Physics Department and co-wrote a math textbook. It is here where he met his second wife Miriam Leonhirth. In addition to teaching, Don worked as a tester on the Internet before the rest of us knew what it was. One day while working on it, he told his teenage daughter, "Come over here and see this. It's going to be big." She looked, then shrugged her shoulders and walked away. During his time in Nashville, Don had a beloved dog Emily. It was a funny sight seeing him at 6'3" walking a 5-pound terrier. After retiring from teaching, Don moved to Summerlin, Nevada and later to Orange County, California where he enjoyed chess, photography, reading, visiting the local sights, and playing pool and poker with fellow retirees.

We will remember Don as an intelligent man who served his country. He was honest, hard-working, practical, made the best of less than ideal situations, and had a dry sense of humor. He is survived by both ex-wives Sylvia and Miriam, a daughter Mary, son-in-law Michel, son Bart, and two grandsons Alex and Malachi.