Donald Joseph Dezinski went to his heavenly home to be with Jesus on Memorial Day, May 26, 2025. He passed at Helen DeVos Heart Center in Grand Rapids with his family (Nellie, Sarah, and Brandon) at his side.

Donald Joseph Dezinski was born December 9, 1934 in Detroit to Edward Joseph Dezinski (the senior) and Antoinette Pogorzelski Dezinski. He was their third child; Antoinette was their eldest and she passed away before Donald was born, then was Edward (the junior), then Donald, then Jerome, and then Jeanette Dezinski Porter.

Donald served in the army from September 9, 1957 to August 31, 1963. He guarded the building of the Berlin Wall in Germany.

Donald was a dairy farmer for many years; he started his dairy business when he was still in high school at the age of fourteen, he graduated from Fremont High School at the age of sixteen and went on with his dairy farm business, milking cows, growing their feed of hay, corn, and other feed; he also did the mechanic work on the equipment. He enjoyed fishing and hunting. He built his milk house and dairy barn; he was a very much "do it himself guy" and he took care of everyone else. When the government started forcing the smaller farms to get bigger or sell out, he retired from dairy farming and worked out as a mechanic / maintenance man. He moved his family from south of Reeman to the Hesperia area.

August 16, Donald married Nellie Way. They have one daughter Sarah Antoinette Dezinski. He was a loving, considerate husband, and father, always thinking of his wife and daughter first. He is going to be greatly missed.

Donald moved north of Hesperia with his family, where they had a variety of farm animals including riding and work/pulling horses. Up until just a few years ago he had been driving his tractors up and back to cut and bale hay for his horses on their farm in Volney as, where they lived northeast of Hesperia was mostly woods with its own private lake. Donald said that he did not need to go (travel) anywhere, that he had everything that he wanted where they lived. He enjoyed walking the nature trails on their property talking to God, he said he felt close to God in nature; he enjoyed riding his horses on the riding trails on their property and fishing their lake; he enjoyed spending time with his family. He often said that he had everything that he needed and wanted. He cut down some of the trees on his property, sawed them into lumber, ordered other materials, laid the cement, did the electric and plumbing work, and built his horse barn with the use of his dozer, tractor, back-hoe, loader, and other equipment all by himself.

Donald is survived by his wife Nellie (whom he was with for forty nine and a half years) his daughter, Sarah (Brandon Krauss), nieces Julie Smith (her sons Steven and Emil), Lisa Dezinski, Laurie (husband Randy and their son Cory), nephews Mark Dezinski (wife Jane, their son Nick, and daughters Holly and Jenna), Glenn Porter (wife Jessalyn sons Brendon and Blaise and daughters Daniella and Felicity ), Daniel Porter (wife Lea and daughter Claire), Dale Porter (wife Kate and daughters Madeline and Amelia), sister-in-law Henrietta LaRoue (late husband Bernard LaRoue, son Seven Adam LaRoue and daughter Charity, her husband Daryl Doornbos), sister-in-law Sandy Nielsen (husband John, sons Nick, Collin, and Braden); Seven Adam's children (three daughters Kurstyn husband Andrew Friel and children, Rayven husband Jason Quintana Jr., and Onyx and two sons Seven LaRoue the second, and Phoenix).

Donald was preceded in death by their miscarried babies, that he is now finally able to meet in heaven, by his parents and all his siblings, his nephew Dennis Porter (Jeanette/Janet's son), his brother-in law Eldon Porter (Jeanette's husband), his sister-in-law Ellie (Edward's wife), his brother-in law Bernard LaRoue (Henrietta's husband).

Donald's death was unexpected. He was getting excited to have a new house getting ready to move in this summer where he could sit on the porch with his dog and see his lake, the wildlife in the woods and watch his horses, other farm animals, and garden. He has not been well for the last couple of years. His heart stopped a year and a half ago at Gerber Hospital and they brought him back to life; he then had five heart operations in 2024 at Butterworth and came out of each unexpectedly well, surprising his doctors. He had just had exams checking the results of all these operations and all were doing real well; his heart monitor check was doing exceedingly well and he was told that he had ten more good years on it. His heart x-rays showed that all operations on his heart had been successful. He needed one more heart valve replacement operation and they wanted him to get stronger for it. About three months ago, he had been walking all by himself and doing well but his legs were giving out on him so he went back in the hospital to try to figure out what the problem was then he was sent to mini lodge in Wyoming for physical therapy to get him stronger and then sent home to get stronger for his last heart operation with physical therapy, but the use of his legs was not improving. He complained of a lot of pain in his legs, so was taken back to the hospital and it was found that his legs were full of infection. This infection caused his organs to fail and he passed away on Memorial Day.

If anyone wants to donate in Donald's honor, please donate to a wildlife or animal rescue organization or to Volney Bible Church. Thank you.

There will be a Military Memorial Service for Donald at the Volney Bible Church Saturday, June 21, 2025 at 1:00 PM.