Donald Dale Wall

Donald Dale Wall Professor Donald Dale Wall, PhD, loyal husband, proud father, adoring grandfather, and lifelong historian, died in the very early hours of May 17, 2020, after 86 well-lived and hard-earned years. Don died from pneumonia as a result of COVID-19, the illness caused by the Coronavirus pandemic so sadly sweeping the globe. While the number of lives lost to the pandemic continues to grow every day, on the day of his death he became just one of the 85,860 Americans and 307,537 people worldwide to be lost to COVID-19. But to us, he meant the world. Don was born on December 7, 1933, in Brighton, Colorado, in the farmhouse his grandfather had built in 1918. He was the last of John Christian Wall and Thekla Louise Barthel Wall’s six children: Harlan, Norma (Hahn), Maurice, Eileen (Meehl), Lester, and Donald. Donnie, as his family called him as a child, was an introverted little boy who grew up on the farm, helping his family with the cows, crops, and chores. He went to school, played sports, and took piano lessons from his sister, Eileen. He created scrapbooks with pictures of faraway places and wild animals, sporting heroes and movie stars, cultures from around the world and depictions of historical events. He kept detailed journals of local sports scores, weather reports, and family events including his 8th birthday party, which coincided with the attack on Pearl Harbor. His family faithfully attended Zion Lutheran Church, where Don received his early education and built a true and powerful faith that shaped his character, guided his choices, and informed how he viewed this world and the next. As a student, Don’s interests and talents were vast. He excelled academically and musically, in theater and in sports. After a particularly strong high-school track performance, The Denver Post published his picture with the caption, “Brighton’s Best Boy” (to the great amusement of his friends). He scored eight points in the state championship basketball game of 1951, remembering fondly the win, but also that his entire family came to watch him in the game. He was also voted “King of the Annual” in 1951, the year he graduated from Brighton High School. Don graduated from Concordia Teachers College in Seward, Nebraska, in 1956, where he studied history, German language, music, and teaching. He received his Master’s degree in history in 1959 from DePaul University, and earned his PhD in history from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1969. In 1965 he received a partial Fulbright scholarship (which he jokingly called a Half-Bright) to research for a year in Germany and, upon his return, began teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. On a particularly fortuitous evening in the spring of 1966, Don attended a birthday party being thrown by a fellow professor for a beautiful young nurse named Carrie Jean Higley. Carrie, an Eau Claire native, was taking some classes at the University for fun while working as a labor and delivery nurse at Luther Hospital, and she swept Don off his feet. The two were married in Eau Claire on June 8, 1968, and were happily married for nearly 52 years. The devoted couple moved to Colorado in 1969, where Don began teaching history at Metropolitan State College (now Metropolitan State University of Denver), a position he held until his retirement in 2002. By 1975 the couple had grown to a family of four, with son Matthew and daughter Elizabeth. Don was a historian by nature and by profession, possessing an intrinsic memory for dates and events and a truly astounding breadth of knowledge. Moreover, he was typecast for the part. His closet was filled with corduroy sport coats and cardigan sweaters, all with leather patches on the elbows. Glasses and a contemplative mustache stretched across his face and (in the early days of his career) he regularly held a pipe between his teeth - an excellent prop for conveying thoughtfulness and deliberation. He often carried a briefcase in each hand - one with a disorganized array of papers and red and black pens, and the other with a typewriter inside. His area of focus was World War II, the Holocaust, and Nazi Germany. He was respected as a leader in his field by his colleagues, authoring a textbook titled Nazi Germany and World War II (first edition 1996, second edition 2002), giving interviews, and receiving prestigious grants. But it was his ability to convey the magnitude, intricacies, humanity, and enduring relevance of this subject to his students that truly set him apart as a professor. Don loved to laugh and his home was filled with humor - whether that was hearing or telling a sarcastic story, trying out a new funny voice, or watching British comedies or Mel Brooks movies. He adored, and knew everything about, classical music, but he also loved to play boogies on the piano and old cowboy tunes on the guitar, and he delighted in singing the complicated lyrics of Gilbert and Sullivan songs. He could perform charming renditions of radio jingles from his childhood and, in high school and college, was one half of a comedic duo that would perform skits and songs (often in a multitude of accents) at school assemblies. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of hymns, played the piano and organ at church, directed the choir, and accompanied his children on the piano as they honed their own musical skills. He cherished the old familiar Christmas Carols that, from birth through his very last Christmas, would be sung together by the extended Wall family at their annual Christmas celebration. Don had an unassuming strength and resilience that was perhaps never more evident than in the last 16 years of his life. He suffered a catastrophic car accident on August 29, 2004, after which he fought, again and again, with relentless determination to heal and recover, only to adjust again with each new setback as the years went by. Though he lived with great amounts of pain, it was rare to hear him complain. He was steadfast in his resolve to live his life, bolstered by the unwavering dedication of his wife to help him through every struggle, his gratitude to still be with us, and the endurance of his mind, even while his body failed him. Don was a man of great character and great Christian faith. His religion was one of love, forgiveness, and acceptance and Don treated everyone with compassion and respect. He recognized and spoke up for the equality of all people; his convictions came from his heart and were unshakeable. The ever-lengthening thread of history defined and connected all parts of Don's life and he wanted to leave the world in a better state than history often told it to be. He proudly lived his life with a sense of humility, kindness, duty, and faith - but always tempered with levity, intelligence, humor, and wit. Don’s gentle and easy-going spirit will be held in the hearts of his wife, Carrie, his children, Matthew (Kristen Jensen) and Elizabeth (Nicholas Kroehl), and his sister, Eileen Meehl. He will be fondly remembered as Papa W by his two grandchildren, Harlow and Dexter, and often thought of by his many brothers- and sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, friends, and colleagues. Memorial donations in Don’s name can be made to refurbish the pipe organ at St. John’s Lutheran Church, 700 S. Franklin Street, Denver, CO, 80209. If you would like to be notified about the memorial service for Don that will be held once it is safe for large groups to gather, please let us know by leaving a message on the Tribute Wall.