He is survived by his brother Dave of New Mexico, as well as family in Washington state – his daughter, Gabrielle Nonast, son-in-law Doug, and grandchildren Ian and Leah.
Writer, environmental activist, entrepreneur, baseball lover and self-described hippy, Don was born in Detroit to parents active in local politics and labor issues.
After college he moved to Los Angeles and carried on the activist spirit as a draft-resistance counselor during the Vietnam War.
He sold juice on Venice Beach and delivered produce to the stars before founding Bongers, a small business that made handheld massage tools, a business he would run for 30 years.
In his later years he founded a health-food products company (his second of this type) to promote capomo, a protein-rich bean from Central America.
His greatest passion and commitment was protecting the environment. Don wrote about environmental concerns for a variety of publications, and in the 1980s created a board game called Save The World.
In the 1990s Don left the “craziness” of LA and settled in Middletown, where he was an active member of the Harbin and HAI communities.
Averse to cold weather, he spent winters in Mexico. There he built a palapa in Yelapa and wrote the novel he’d been planning for years, “King of Diamonds.”
Funny, intelligent, warm, friendly, adventurous, passionate, outspoken, creative, cantankerous, optimistic, unconventional, generous … this is how we will remember him.
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