Donald Paul Kirkhart

Donald Kirkhart died April 5, 2020, after living with a massively debilitating stroke and progressive polycystic kidney disease for the last years of his life. He was 85 years old. Don was a skydiver, a motorcycle enthusiast, a tinkerer, a pool player, a traveler, an outdoorsman, a daredevil, and a storyteller. He loved a good joke, nature and most of all, people. Wherever he traveled, he made friends. Don was born on January 14, 1935, in Stow, Ohio during the Great Depression. His parents owned a small farm, and he shared many stories of both the hardships and human warmth of those times. He lost his father as a young teenager and worked in a chair factory during high school to help pay family bills. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. He also served in the U.S. Navy. After his military service, he joined the Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio police force. After years as an officer, he became Chief of Police there. He was also a Master Mason. Upon retiring, he returned to farming in Ohio. When he sold the farm, he divided his time between Ohio and the Lower Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, a part of the country he loved since he first saw it as a young man. His beloved wife, Alicia, died in 2015 of pancreatic cancer. He sustained a severe stroke in 2017 and has been wonderfully cared for by the staff of Windsor Arbor View Long Term Care Facility in Edinburg, Texas for the last part of his life. He greatly loved and is survived by his large extended family in Texas, Ohio, and Florida, as well as close friends all over the United States. A celebration of his life will be planned at a future time when family and friends can gather together. Burial will be at the Rio Grande Valley State Veteran's Cemetery in Mission, Texas. He was preceded in death by his dear wife, Alicia Kirkhart; by his parents, Bessie and Olin Kirkhart; and by his brother, Robert O. Kirkhart. Donations in honor of Don's life can be made to St. Jude's Hospital for Children or The Nature Conservancy.