Alan Donn

Groton, CT - Alan H. Donn, 71, passed away peacefully on Friday, Sept. 9, 2011, at his home in Groton, after a long and gallant struggle with mesothelioma. Born on Sept. 16, 1939 in Newark, N.J., Alan attended local schools, graduating from West Side High School in June, 1957, and entering the U.S. Naval Academy as a Congressional appointee with the class of 1961. After graduation from the Naval Academy, Alan entered the nuclear power training program and served for 20 years on ballistic missile and fast attack submarines. Alan qualified in submarines on the USS Theodore Roosevelt (SSBN-600) in 1964. He also served on the commissioning crews of the USS Greenling (SSN 614) and USS Flying Fish (SSN 673) and the overhaul crew of the USS Narwhal (SSN 671). Following retirement from the Navy in 1981, Alan was employed as a combat systems engineer at Tracor, Inc. in Groton, and running a 52 acre Christmas tree farm in Stonington in his spare time. Leaving Tracor in 1989, Alan attended an accelerated secondary education credentialing program at Wesleyan University in Middletown, obtaining his teaching certification as a high school mathematics and science teacher, under the mantle of a National Science Foundation grant. Alan joined us at USSVI Groton Base in 2006 and was a Life Member, he was also a member of the USS Robert E Lee Association. While at Tracor and Wesleyan, Alan renewed a long deferred interest in ocean sailing that dated back to his Naval Academy days on the wooden Luder's Yawls. He also began a relationship with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as an on-site dredging project representative, finally obtaining his USCG master's license. Leaving teaching, Alan spent the next twenty odd years operating a yacht delivery and project management business as a good excuse "for messing about in boats" and bringing sailing and motor yachts up and down the East Coast and Caribbean

until Oct. 2010 when his illness necessitated surrendering the master's license and cessation of sea-going adventures. During his years as a delivery skipper, Alan taught navigation and other marine topics at Mystic Seaport, local adult education programs, and professional licensing schools, and also working with individual students. In later years he assisted in the organization and startup of a Sea Scout "ship" opened under the sponsorship of the Groton Chapter of the U.S. Submarine Veterans. Alan was an intensely spiritual man, finding his spiritual life as an active participant at The Road Church in Stonington, serving in several leadership positions in the management of church affairs and leading a "Teens and Twenties" youth group for many years, and playing the trumpet at The Road Church and with orchestral groups at other area churches. In his last years, Alan was an active participant in Pleasant Street Baptist Church in Pawcatuck, also serving in that Church's vision, building and pastor search committees. Alan was a renaissance man with a broad range of interests in Naval history, astronomy and sailing, enjoying music both as a musician and listener (especially of trumpet music and Gregorian Chant), and enjoying constant engineering projects on land and boats. Alan never met a tool he didn't like or have to have, nor a project of his own or another's that he didn't want to be involved with. Alan is survived by his sister, Susan Donn of Fresno, Calif.; daughter, Brynna Donn, her husband, Alfredo Muir; and sons, Lance and Logan Muir, of Mountain View, Calif., Andrew Donn and his wife, Katherine Donn, of Arlington, Va.; and his loved companion, Meredith Russell of Groton; and "step-children" Kiri Kitano and Quinn Kitano of Massachusetts. "Fair winds and following seas" to this lover of the water. Alan's ashes will be strewn at sea.

General Sitrep: Put in a semi-full day Thursday trying to advance the cleanup and other underway preps, but I paid for it today - Had to sleep most of the day and just felt generally whacked out and weak. At rest pain index is OK but coughing (or laughing) kicks it up to 8 or 9. So far I've been able to stay off the pain pills and manage without the O2 bottle and am making do with Tylenol and OTC cough medicine to help clear my chest.

Other than that, life is good. I finished shipalts to the bunk bed that I built for the boys' Christmas visit and find that it's nice to have a bunk in my office - Bunk tested; test Sat! I visited with classmate Ed Ettinger (Joe Bellino's room mate) at a rehab facility where he was recuperating from a knee/hip replacement and we swapped horror stories about our time on the Lee with R.M. Hoover that ended both our careers. He was smarter than I. After a short stint as Bob Fountain's Nav/Ops on Finback he got out and worked for Coca-Cola in South Africa for 8 years.

I got a disappointing response from the VA re service connected disability ruling. Rather than a shoo-in based on my DD-214 and medical diagnosis they want a mountain of supporting paperwork that I have neither the time nor the energy to produce. I've got enough money to sustain things until the end and it's just not worth the effort to spend these last days battling with those idiots for a relatively minor gain.

Our classmates Joe Mueller and Tom McNicholas will be coming for a visit for the weekend of 22-24 January. The three of us went to visit with Bill (W.C.) Long this Fall when I could still travel fairly well. Bill is still fighting his battle with Glio-Blastoma. The two of us are shooting to make the 50th.

Thanks to Guy for getting on board for the submariners cancer alert network; it's a needed thing.

Will keep you posted.

Al Donn

-- ALAN H DONN 263 BRIDGE ST #27 GROTON, CT 06340

Date on board: 1970-1972