Donald Raymond Wier, age 82, of Denton, Texas, passed away on May 11, 2023. The second child of Lloyd Elmer and Thelma Olan (Meek) Wier, Don was born on July 9, 1940, in Fort Scott, Kansas. A farm kid who excelled in the classroom and on the fields and courts of Blue Mound (Kansas) High School so much he earned a “This is Your Life” pep rally as a senior (impressing a ninth grade girl in the stands enough that she would remember it years later), Don would midnight oil his way to a Bachelor’s of Science at Kansas State University and a Master’s of Science and a Doctorate of Philosophy in soil chemistry at Iowa State University. In that time and the professional career that followed with what was then Phillips Petroleum Company, that farm kid, among many other things, would manage sizable teams of scientists and engineers and even sign his name to several patents (which the Internet preserves to surprise grandchildren many years later).
But Don himself would have told you that the smartest, if also the luckiest, thing he ever did was unite in marriage on July 23, 1966 to–you guessed it–that girl from the pep rally, Imogene Joy Ross. Three sons–John, Dan, and Anthony–followed. He loved his wife and family above everything, and reveled in the boys’ endless sports activities and academic pursuits. His country-strong physicality and athletic prowess would sneak out and wow those boys when he was fixing something in the shed or working in his garden or playing a football game with them in the front yard. What really mattered beneath that brain and brawn, though, was a husband, father, grandfather, colleague, and boss who was wonderfully, unforgettably joyful, gentle, kind, and tender.
Don loved his Kansas City Royals (especially when George Brett hit that homer off Goose Gossage in the ‘80 ALCS), his Kansas State Wildcats (not least when, after years of trash talking from wayward sons, he was in the stands with his boys in Austin when the ‘Cats put it to John and Anthony’s Longhorns), and later his Dallas Cowboys. A pulmonary embolism and a stroke in 1999 that put him in intensive care for a month should have killed him, but they did not stand a chance against that heart of his. He never got all his mobility back but he did join Kiwanis Morning Club, he became a Denton County Master Gardener, and most of all he lit up with pride and delight as grandchildren Margaret, Will, Caroline, Jake, Beckett, and Quincy came along to fill the post-stroke years with such joy and hope.
Don was preceded in death by his parents and his brother, Jimmie Allen Wier. He is survived by his wife Imogene; their son John, his wife Yvette Carson, and children Margaret and Will; their son Dan, his wife Hannah, and children Caroline and Jake; their son Anthony, his wife Lori, and children Beckett and Quincy; and sisters-in-law Deanna Wier and Irene Dodder.
Graveside funeral service will be at 11:00 am, Friday, May 19, at Sunny Slope Cemetery in Blue Mound, Kansas. Visitation will be held from 5 to 7 pm, Thursday, May 18, at the Schneider Funeral Home and Crematory, Mound City Chapel. Contributions are suggested to the Parkinson’s Foundation.
