Donnie (Don) Wayne "Don" Priest

Donnie (Don) Wayne Priest was born at home in Batesville, Arkansas, June 27, 1938, to Acil Edward and Beatrice Ellen Sisk Priest. He passed away in Rolla, Missouri, June 26, 2025, at the age of 86. In addition to his parents, he was preceded by his brother, Harold A. Priest, and a 5-year-old niece, Connie Sue Priest. Don is survived by his wife, Virginia (Ginger) Hays Priest, whom he married August 12, 1967, and a sister-in-law, Sally Priest.

Don began his education in a one-room school which had no electricity, no running water, and was heated by a wood stove in the middle of the room. One room housed six grades. By observing the instruction for older students in the room, this allowed an opportunity to skip a grade when his family moved into town. He graduated from Monette Arkansas High School at age 16. Over the next six years, while attending Arkansas State College (now Arkansas State University) in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Don was a soda jerk, picked cotton, picked cherries in Michigan, worked in a cannery in Wisconsin, picked peas in Illinois, was a union steel worker in Indiana, helped assemble 1958 Chevies in St. Louis, and was the world's worst draftsman for four employers in St. Louis. He also completed his military obligation during this time.

Don began his teaching career in 1961 at Northwest High School in House Springs, Missouri. He taught there until 1966 when he began teaching at Rolla High School. He did graduate work at Michigan State University, University of Wisconsin, University of Minnesota, University of Missouri, Kansas State University, and graduated from UMR (now S&T) in 1966 with a Master of Science for Teachers with a major in physics. He finished his 40-year career at UMR teaching mathematics.

Don was honored in 1984 with the Presidential Award for Teaching of Mathematics representing Missouri at the White House. In the same year, he was honored as a U.S. teacher representative at the first-ever National Conference for Computers in Education in Geneva, Switzerland, joining participants from more than 100 countries. In 1985 he was a faculty member at the first Missouri Scholars Academy. In 2023 he was selected for induction into the Rolla High School Hall of Fame. In spite of the accolades, Don was most proud when a former student said, "Thank You."

After Don retired from teaching, he volunteered for GRACE, Rolla Friends of the Library, and delivered Meals on Wheels for 24 years. Activities Don enjoyed were Cardinal baseball, reading, theatre, opera, traveling, word puzzles, Sudoku, walking his dog, and hearing from former students.

A memorial service in Rolla for Don Priest will be conducted at 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 2, 2025 at the Null and Son Funeral Home.

A second memorial service will be conducted at 2 p.m. on Sunday, August 3, 2025 at the First Baptist Church in Tipton, MO.

To honor Don Priest, please help a child with his or her reading or math, or make a donation to the charity of your choice.