Don J. Uhl

Don J. Uhl, 99, of Van Wert, died at Henry Ford Hospital, West Bloomfield, Michigan, Tuesday, February 22, 2022, of cardiac arrest, with his wife and two children at his side.

He was born February 3, 1923, to Albert and Margaret (Williams) Uhl in Van Wert. His twin sister, Dorthy Jean (Uhl) Weigle, was born 15 minutes later. He had no other siblings. They graduated from Van Wert High School in 1941. During his high school years, Don was an active athlete at the YMCA, winning medals as Van Wert County’s top tennis player and traveling throughout the United States and Canada with the ‘Y’ basketball team; he was also the catcher for the Van Wert High School baseball team. He continued playing tennis throughout his life, finally relinquishing his racket at age 80.

After high school he began studying engineering at Ohio State University until the United States entered World War II. He enlisted as a cadet in the Army Air Corps (the forerunner of the United States Air Force) at Denison University. He was later sent to teach communications at Yale University before being assigned to a communications post on the island of Saipan in the South Pacific. Following the war, he continued his studies at Ohio Northern University.

Don began his professional career at the former Peoples Savings Bank in Van Wert before spending 33 years with the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in the Ohio-Kentucky-Tennessee district, auditing and examining savings and loan institutions. Throughout the years, he often was called away on long assignments: twice to Washington, D.C, where he took the family along with him to live for extended stays, and once each to Charlotte, Dallas, San Antonio, and San Francisco.

His athletic ability and mathematical thinking combined to make him an expert pool player. At his 80th birthday celebration he ran the table. His athleticism and his sense of humor never left him; only last summer, at age 98, he scored a hole-in-one playing miniature golf, and he loved to laugh until his dying day.

He was a life-time member of First Presbyterian Church, where he served as a deacon and usher for many years, and a member of the American Legion, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Willow Bend Country Club.

He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Faye Ann (Cooper) Uhl, their two offspring, Christopher D. Uhl of Hoosick, New York, and Tiffany E. Uhl of West Bloomfield, Michigan, and cousins, nieces, and nephews. His sister preceded him in death four years ago.

Funeral services will be held at at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 19, at First Presbyterian Church. The family will receive visitors in the France Room from 12 p.m. until service time. Burial will follow the service in Woodland Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, preferred memorials: First Presbyterian Church or the YMCA

To share in Donald’s online memorial, email alspachgearhart@gmail.com.