Donald Eugene Skaggs1926 - 2011

Rev. Donald "Don" Skaggs

April 27, 1926  -  February 4, 2011

Don was born in East Selah WA into a large pre-depression-era family, where hard work and family support extended to the community around them.  His formal education took him only partly through eighth-grade, but his ingenuity and creativity served him well.  His vocations spanned nearly all possible paths through hard-work, including lumberjack, laborer, janitor, carpenter, electrician, engineer, inventor, professional fly-tier and successful businessman, allowing him to retire from his carpet-cleaning business in Yakima WA at age 60.

He joined the Navy during WWII and served in campaigns in Okinawa and Philippines.  After the war’s end, his Sea-Bee company was sent to a classified location to provide construction and recovery services in what was later known as the “Operation Crossroads” atomic weapons tests at Bikini Atoll.  He reflected upon the destructive hand of man in those blasts, and the glorious hand of God in the billowing clouds he observed as he was allowed to ride in the cockpit of the transport taking him home directly from that assignment on a hardship discharge to be with his failing mother and to assume the role as the primary support for his family.

After Don gave his heart to The Lord, he and Dorothy, his wife and true-love, dedicated themselves to serving God and raising children.  All of their children are adopted or “hand-picked” as they like to say.  As their children began having their own children and grandchildren, he took enormous pride in his legacy and began every family prayer with paraphrased verses from Psalm 127; “Children are like arrows in the hands of a mighty warrior, and blessed is he who has a full quiver.”  As Don’s mind began to cloud with the onset of his illness, his favorite possession and cognitive touchstone was a large framed photo of nearly his entire family at the time, taken at his 80^th birthday party, counting over 70 descendants and spouses.  Hunting, fishing and stewardship of God’s creations were the passions of his youth, which he passed to his children, who in turn passed these wonderful traditions on to their children, along with the best example he could be of patriarchal responsibility, personal honor, sacrifice and dedication to service of God.

Don served as a spiritual leader, freelance pastor and “country preacher” for decades and was an ordained minister in the Full Gospel Holiness Church until the onset of his illness.  He taught in innumerable churches, missions, homes and revival meetings, as well as performing dozens of weddings, river baptisms and dedications.  Self-taught on guitar and always ready to make a joyful noise unto The Lord, he loved to lead worship services and sing praises to his Savior, Jesus Christ.  His personal philosophy and evangelical life revolved around the scriptures and the principal that salvation comes only through the grace of God and acceptance of the work at The Cross as atonement for personal and spiritual failing.  “Rest In Jesus” was his slogan and creed.

Don went to his Heavenly Father from his home in Caldwell ID, surrounded by loved ones after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease and brain injury.  He is preceded in death by his brother Denny, sisters Zelma and Barbara and step-sisters Marge, Myra and Pat. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Dorothy (Clement), sisters Lucille and Ivy of Christmas Valley OR, step-sister Sandy of WA, sons Daniel Skaggs of Parma ID, David Skaggs of Yakima WA, Donavan Skaggs of Auburn WA, daughters DeLynda Stevens of Sandpoint ID and Debbie LaVelle of Kennewick WA, 17 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren, numerous nieces and nephews, innumerable foster children and legal wards.

Memorial arrangements are pending.  Please visit the Skaggs Family website or call (206) 337-3368 for updates and additional information.  The family suggests that instead of flowers, please consider a gift to Children’s Home Society or the Melba Valley Worship Center.