Donald Secor

Don is survived by his wife of 58 years, Karen; along with his children, Peter, Matthew, Timothy; and 14 grandchildren, Ryden, Andrei, Kiril, Torin, Dimitri, Leif, Paaloma, Anton, Amelie, Quint, Victor, Evar, Fennec, and Milena.

He was born on May 22, 1941. His parents, Eno and Alma Joelson died while he was still very young, so his aunt and uncle Saima “Ammi” Moilanen and Thomas “Gramps” Secor adopted him into their family in Centennial Heights, Calumet.

He grew up “back a Heights” with his siblings Tom, Janet, and Stewart, playing hockey and chasing frogs and snakes.

He retained strong ties to the Keweenaw Peninsula throughout his life, studying at Michigan Technological University (MTU) after high school, and often traveled back to the area with his own family later. He and Karen returned permanently in 1997 to live in Eagle River, and, more recently, Laurium.

He relished his Finnish heritage, the people, and the self-reliant lifestyle of the area, maintaining his childhood friendships for over 80 years.

Some childhood memories and stories he liked to re-tell as often as people would listen included getting hit in the head by a baseball so hard he was knocked out, going swimming in Lake Superior with his friends for the first time and diving in but suddenly realizing he didn’t know how to swim yet, biking deep into the bush to pick berries, and taking Latin with his best friend’s mother, Mrs. Pietila.

Hockey was ever-present, as were tussles with the neighborhood boys, taking saunas with the family, and helping his father with electric trains in the attic.

After graduating Calumet High, he and some of his close friends all attended Michigan Tech where they were some of the earliest programmers in the computer software industry. He really enjoyed telling us about using punch cards to instruct the computer, and having to physically fix and solder back together diodes so Dr. Beyster wouldn’t kick them out of school for breaking the only computer in the Upper Peninsula.

Upon graduation from Tech, he pursued his Master’s degree at MIT, enjoying learning about communications theory, working at Bell Labs, and fixing his Chevy II after driving it a bit too spiritedly down Mass Ave.

After obtaining his master’s degree at MIT, he travelled west to work at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Los Angeles, the city of angels where his dreams were realized when he met Karen. They quickly realized they were two kindred spirits and remained virtually inseparable after their marriage in 1967.

Three children were born in the next decade, all in May, and they loved visiting the U.P. every summer to visit his parents. Don was always deeply involved in his children’s lives and proud of their accomplishments. He pushed hard for and supported their education from elementary school through university, introduced them to the sports he enjoyed like hockey and golf, and drove with his family cross-country many times, exploring parks, restaurants, temperature extremes, playing blackjack to pay for the hotels, and experiencing spectacular weather systems (tornado!).

As his grandchildren started arriving, he spent time with them, teaching chess, hockey and math, and listening and learning from them as well. He had a happy and infectious spirit, always smiling and willing to engage in conversation with anybody, anywhere. He tried very hard to tell good jokes, and sometimes even succeeded!

Don always did well in school. His enlistment in the army as an officer, and studies at MTU and MIT allowed him to travel more and be a part of some significant milestones throughout his more than 40 year career, including working at Bell Labs and JPL, witnessing the first moon landing from the control room, contributing to building the early Voyager probes that are still traveling in space, designing military avionics for some of the most advanced airplanes ever built, and designing communications algorithms and hardware used for cellular telephones today.

His interest in mathematics and engineering continued after retirement in 1997, when he spent a decade teaching what he had learned to engineering students at MTU and gave a Herculean effort to tackle unsolved math problems until the very end. Thanks dad, thanks grandpa, thanks Don, we miss you.

To view Don’s obituary or to send condolences to the family please visit www.memorialchapel.net. 

The Memorial Chapel Funeral & Cremation Service – Hancock Chapel is assisting the family with the arrangements, which will be a celebration of life next summer, details to be announced at a later time.