Reverend Donald E. Mink

Donald Ewing Mink entered his long-awaited rest at Pioneer Manor Home in Hay Springs, NE on November 16th, 2025.

Don, to many, Donnie to family in Missouri and Brother Mink to most, was born on July 14th, 1935, in the Missouri Methodist Hospital in St. Joseph, MO but spent his childhood and teenage years growing up in and around the Fillmore Community.

He graduated from Fillmore High School in 1952. He played the trombone (I don't think I ever heard him play) and loved to sing.

He began attending the Fillmore Church of God when he was 6 months old. It was a story he loved to tell about Grandpa & Grandma becoming Christians, a neighbor who then invited them to church and picked them up in his Model T pickup saying, "Alma, you and the baby (Don) sit up front, the rest of you crawl in the back." Dad said he rarely missed church after that.

It was in the church youth that he met Pat and in 1952, they went on their first date. A couple of years later, Don asked Pat to marry him. She didn't say yes right away then early one morning, Don pulled up to the Lymer house on a very loud tractor as he was heading out to the field. I guess she was impressed and said "Yes"! She thought she was marrying farmer!

God had another calling in mind. Being called to ministry, the family moved to Houston, TX in 1959 so that Don could attend Gulf Coast Bible College and study for the ministry. He graduated in 1964. He sometimes joked that people couldn't believe how smart he was to finish a 4-year degree in 5 years.

Upon graduation, he took his first church in Thayer, MO. They served in this congregation until 1970 when God's call shifted a little and moved them to Alliance, NE to serve in ministry to the Lakota people in a variety of roles and places but primarily in Alliance at the Indian Mission Church of God. He once asked God to give him a supernatural love for the people he served, and that prayer was answered.

He retired in September of 2023 when his body betrayed his will to continue serving and he moved to Pioneer Manor in Hay Springs, NE.

But God continued to use him, HE PRAYED and probably prayed for many of us reading this obituary.

Don is survived by children Butch & Linda Abold, Charles & Debra Underhill, John & Mel Strasburger, Nathan & Sarah Mink-Bluecoat, numerous grand kids and great grand kids. Siblings – Steve Mink and David Mink. Don also had countless nieces and nephews and many of you fondly called him "Grandpa Mink".

He was preceded in death by his wife, Pat, parents, Ewing & Alma Mink, parent in laws, Herbert & Bertha Lymer. Siblings and in-laws, Larry & Cathy Mink, Barb & Jack Hollis and Doug Mink.

Funeral services will be Thursday, November 20 at 2:00 p.m. at the Alliance Eagles Club. Visitation will begin at 12:30 p.m. Burial will be Tuesday, November 25 at 11:00 a.m. at the Fillmore Cemetery in Fillmore, Missouri.

Memorials may be given for Pioneer Manor Home in Hay Springs, NE and /or Pass Creek Church of God in Allen, SD. The memorial gifts will be divided unless specified where you would like your monies to go. They may be sent to : Mel Strasburger, 2731 356th Trl., Lakeside, NE 69351.