Donald W. Wilson

Don­ald W. Wil­son, 91, of Ostran­der died Sat­ur­day (Sept. 8, 2012) at his home.

He was born Feb. 8, 1921, in Watkins to Charles and Maude (Lynts) Wil­son. He grad­u­ated from Ostran­der High School. Don proudly served his coun­try in U.S. Army with the 101st Air­borne Divi­sion, took part in the Bat­tle of the Bulge as well as jump­ing in Nor­mandy, Bas­togne and Bel­gium. He received the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Clus­ter for being part of the 101st Air­borne Divi­sion in Nor­mandy in June 1944 and with the 501st Para­chute Infantry in Hol­land in Sep­tem­ber 1944. Don was awarded two pur­ple hearts with the Oak Leaf Clus­ter and Pres­i­den­tial Unit Cita­tion with Oak Leaf Cluster.

He joined the Dis­abled Amer­i­can Vet­er­ans (DAV) at the time of dis­charge from the U.S. Army, Delaware, Chap­ter 79. The DAV fur­nished cars and dri­vers for the Red Cross to recruit col­lege girls from OWU to go to Chill­i­cothe to visit vet­er­ans in the hos­pi­tal there. He made sev­eral trips with Dan Ballinger, Carl Con­verse, Mor­ris Shan­non and oth­ers. At that time, the DAV also pro­vided flags and honor guards for some of the Memo­r­ial Day ser­vices in the com­mu­ni­ties in Delaware County. Don was instru­men­tal in mak­ing arrange­ments for sev­eral of those ser­vices in Ostran­der, includ­ing giv­ing the Memo­r­ial Day address in Pow­ell, Dublin and Ostran­der and also had the priv­i­lege of serv­ing as the Com­man­der of Chap­ter 79 at one time.

He made World War II pre­sen­ta­tions to sev­eral classes at Buck­eye Val­ley schools and other area schools. He was appointed Post­mas­ter of Ostran­der in Octo­ber 1949, serv­ing the com­mu­nity until Octo­ber 1977. To this day, many peo­ple, young and old, recall how they enjoyed com­ing to the post office and vis­it­ing with Don and that of course, made his day.

He served as a vol­un­teer on the Scioto Town­ship Fire Depart­ment from 1954 to 1977, becom­ing assis­tant chief in 1967 and retir­ing in 1977. Don and his wife, Gladys con­ducted a cal­en­dar drive for the fire depart­ment for sev­eral years. This cal­en­dar drive was a crit­i­cal source of finan­cial aid for the fire department.

He was instru­men­tal in orga­niz­ing the Ostran­der 4th of July Parade and fes­tiv­i­ties. After many years of assist­ing with orga­niz­ing together, Ed John­son and Don served as the announc­ers of the parade. After Ed passed away, Don con­tin­ued to serve as announcer up through 2008. Then in 2009, he was made the Grand Mar­shall of the 2009 parade. He had a fire truck ded­i­cated to his honor which was in Ostran­der 4th of July Parade.

Don was a mem­ber of the Ostran­der Pres­by­ter­ian Church serv­ing in the offices of dea­con, elder, trustee and Sun­day school super­in­ten­dent. He was a mem­ber of the Ostran­der Senior Cit­i­zens and the Bell­point K of P Lodge. A mem­ber of Ostran­der Busi­ness Asso­ci­a­tion since 1955, he served as pres­i­dent for three years. Sev­eral times, Dale George and Don were in charge of the hog roast for the annual June pic­nic. He served on the board of direc­tors for the Delaware County Bank from 1965 when it was the Ostran­der Bank­ing Com­pany until 1991, served as Jury Com­mis­sioner for Delaware County from 1988–2012 and mem­ber of the Delaware County Demo­c­ra­tic Cen­tral & Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tees since 1983.

Don was well known in the Ostran­der and Delaware com­mu­ni­ties and will be greatly missed by all.

He is sur­vived by his daugh­ter, Betty (William) Basham of Ostran­der; a grand­daugh­ter, Barb (Jim) Torchia of Gahanna; grand­son, William Camp; step­grand­chil­dren, Randy, Kim and Kraig Basham of Ash­ley and Ricky and Michelle Basham of Delaware; a great-granddaughter, Miquela Basham; nephew, Mar­vin Gam­ble of Marysville; and two nieces, Doris (Bill) Schrader of Marysville and Miriam (Paul) Engle of Wash­ing­ton Courthouse.

He was pre­ceded in death by his wife, Gladys on June 15, 2012.

Vis­i­ta­tion will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Tues­day at the Robin­son Funeral Home, Delaware.

A funeral ser­vice will be held at 11 a.m. Wednes­day in the Ostran­der Pres­by­ter­ian Church with the Rev. John Groat offi­ci­at­ing. Bur­ial will fol­low in the Mill­creek Ceme­tery where the Delaware County Vet­er­ans Asso­ci­a­tion will con­duct mil­i­tary honors.

A lun­cheon and cel­e­bra­tion of life will fol­low at the Scioto Town­ship Fire Department.

Memo­r­ial con­tri­bu­tions may be made to the Ostran­der Pres­by­ter­ian Church, 117 W. North St., Ostran­der, OH 43061.

Con­do­lences may be expressed to the fam­ily at robinsonfuneralhomeinc.com.

Posted by Staff Reports Obits on Sep 9 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.