Donald Glower passed away at home on July 3rd, 2022, surrounded by family. Don’s life exemplified the American dream. Don was born in 1926 in Shelby, Ohio to Irva Scheerer and Raymond Glower. There, he and his brother, Robert, worked the family farm cultivating crops and milking cows. He attended a one-room schoolhouse where he was the only student in his grade. He played center on the basketball team and pitcher on the baseball team, pitching both left- and right-handed. Don entered the Merchant Marine Academy in 1944, then served on a T2 tanker in the Battle of Truk in WWII. He continued to work part time in the Merchant Marine service throughout college. After WWII, Don attended Antioch College where he met the love of his life, best friend, lifelong partner, and wife Betty Stahl. The two were married in 1953 and lived the poor graduate student life at Iowa State culminating with Don’s graduation with a Ph.D. in nuclear and mechanical engineering in 1960.
Don and Betty moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where Don worked at Sandia Labs. Four years later, Don and Betty moved to Columbus, Ohio to start a highly successful career at The Ohio State University. While at Ohio State, Don established the nuclear engineering program, chaired the department of mechanical engineering, served as Dean of the College of Engineering, and was promoted to Vice President of Communications and Development at Ohio State. Don started the engineering co-op program and brought the Transportation Research Center (TRC) under the administration and control of OSU. The TRC not only attracted Honda to locate in Marysville, Ohio, but also catalyzed continued collaboration between Ohio State and Honda. Although Don was the primary bread winner, he and Betty worked as an inseparable team.
After his retirement from Ohio State in 1992, Don consulted with UNESCO to assist developing countries generate industries and jobs for their people. In 2000, Don and Betty and moved to Destin, Florida where they were active members of the community — organizing bridge groups, book clubs, weekly dinners, a fishing club, and golf outings. When Betty died in 2020, the community and the friendships he and Betty had developed kept Don going. At the age of 95, Don passed away after leading a long and productive life to rejoin his best friend Betty once again. Don is survived by four children, Donald Jr., Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Michel, Allentown, Pennsylvania, Leilani, Centreville, Virginia, and Jacob, Fargo, North Dakota. He is also survived by twelve grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. We are all grateful for being the children of such kind, brilliant, and caring people as Don and Betty.
When Don retired from Ohio State, friends, colleagues and former students honored him by standing up a scholarship fund in his and Betty’s names to support select engineering students.
