Donald Lee Abeln

1936 - 2021

Abeln, Donald Lee

84, of St. Louis, Mo, died Jan. 2, 2021, at home. He was born Aug. 20, 1936, in St. Louis to John F. and Adele E. Abeln (Steinbach). He is survived by children, Tracy M. Abeln (m. Mark Schweiger), of Kansas City, Mo., and Eric J. and Sarah Abeln (Schweers), and grandchildren, Norah, 4, and Elliott, 2, of North Aurora, Ill.; and by cousins, other Abelns, and friends.

He was educated at Resurrection of Our Lord grade school, Roosevelt High School and Harris-Stowe before obtaining his B.S. in geological engineering from Washington University in 1962. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard, then was an engineer in civil service for the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, City of St. Louis, U.S. Army, and V.A. Medical Center; he retired from the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency, Defense Fuel Supply Center, in 1998.

Dedicated to precision and fairness, Don believed in protecting wildlife's ecology and cared about things and systems that were properly and logically made to work and last. He was a collector of old tools that endure. He cared about passing on family genealogy and the history of St. Louis' development, families, property and people, of which he had deep insight and lasting memory. He enjoyed fishing and making fishing flies, gardening with scientific precision and beautiful results, was talented at pre-digital photography, and was very into perfecting, collecting and sharing recipes. He was made whole by socializing, and he was gifted at predicting but not always making winning bets on horse races. He is missed.

Hello to the folks at Fairmont Park and The Hole. Thank you to Leo Abeln.

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