Donald Eugene Westcott

Donald was born in 1922 in Fairview Village, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. When he was 3 years old, his parents divorced, which resulted in Don being passed around from his mother, to his father, to his grandparents, to his step-grandparents and back and forth over and over again. With no stability and lots alone time on his hands, Don had plenty of opportunity to get into trouble. To avoid temptation of doing wrong, Don decided to attend church as often as he could. Wherever he was living, he found a local church to go to. While attending one church, he won a Bible for memorizing more verses than anyone else.
About the age of 11, he told his Dad that he felt he should be living with one of his parents. So his Dad told him to pack up his clothes, told his wife that Don was coming home with them and Don lived with them until he was 18. During that time, Don worked on the coal truck with his Dad and later went to work at his Dad's gas station.
At 18, he decided he wanted to go to Bowling Green, KY, and enroll in Business College. It was on that visit, he saw a young Southern girl named Doris and fell immediately in love. He enrolled in college and started working at a local paint and wallpaper store.
Once he met Doris, she refused to date him until he agreed to go to church with her. That was when he started going to the Church of Christ. He soon realized that all he had been reading and learning in the Bible made sense in the Church of Christ. He confessed Christ as his Savior and was baptized.
Shortly after WWII broke out, Don enlisted in the Marine Corp in June 1942. One year later, on June 17, 1943, he went home to marry his one-true-love, Doris. Immediately following the ceremony, he took his new bride to Camp Pendleton in San Diego, Calif. A year later he left to serve in Honolulu, Hawaii for two years. Unbeknownst to them, Doris was already pregnant with their first child. After returning from the war in 1946, he became owner of a paint and wallpaper store while completing his business degree in accounting. During that time, they conceived their second child, Carol. Three years later, Melanie was born.
After losing the lease on his Paint and Wallpaper store in 1955, Don and Doris decided to relocate the family to California, where they settled in La Mirada, near Los Angeles. While residing in California, Don worked for Lever Brothers Co for 27 years, retiring at the age of 60. They became members of a local Church of Christ where Don was asked to be an Elder. He accepted and served for 10 years. He said many times that he "…enjoyed serving the Lord very much."
During their 64 year marriage, Don and Doris enjoyed doing many things together: square dancing, camping, fishing, traveling and genealogy. Don also enjoyed restoring and reupholstering furniture, golf, repairing clocks, automotive repair, coin and stamp collecting, and playing cribbage. Although he never had a positive male role model, he was a wonderful husband, dad, businessman, friend and faithful Christian who was a delight to know. He will be remembered as being a people person, for his great sense of humor, his honesty, his integrity, and his love for the Lord. Many have been blessed to call him friend and brother.

Arrangements under the direction of Mariposa Gardens Memorial Park and Funeral Care, Mesa, AZ.