Word has been received that retired Portland retailer Leonard Donin has passed away. Donin was the oldest living athlete to have played on a University Of Oregon team, a former basketball and baseball star, he would have been the first Oregon letterman to live to be 100. To us, he was known as the father of my Aunt Carol, who married my Dad's brother Arny. Although I have known Mr. Donin for 40 years, I did not know until recently of his impressive athletic achievements. As a matter of fact, I did not know that he was an athlete at all. He was a very soft spoken, humble man. As soft spoken as he was, he was also very engaging and it was easy to converse with him. Mr. Donin would have been 100 tomorrow and a party had been planned to honor him.
He was very nice. I spoke with him at a family event about 20 years ago. When I told him I was attending wsu he shared some of his memmories of competing against the Cougs.
ReplyDeleteI was so sorry to hear of Leonard's passing. He lived at the retirement home where my mother lives and I had many conversations with him sitting in front of the elevator by the piano. He was so wonderful and will be greatly missed by all who knew him.
ReplyDeleteSuch a wonderful Man, I actually was fortunate enough to have had several infrequent visits with him over the past 6 years. Very gentle and kind man who was very much a sports enthusiast, I always enjoyed chatting with Leonard about one of his favorite topics, Sports, I did love to tease with him about Ducks vs. Beavers. He will be greatly missed.
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