Donald Lee Triptow (Don) passed away in Hurricane, Utah on Monday, Feb. 19, 2024. He was 85 years “young.” He was born Dec. 27, 1938, in Salt Lake City, Utah to Earl Leon Triptow and Ruth Eliza Fowler Triptow.
He graduated in 1957 and joined the U.S. Coast Guard where he remained on active and reserved duty in Salt Lake City, Oakland and San Francisco. He also served on Ocean Station November aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Taney. Following active duty, he relocated to Hollywood and took employment with Central Type Setting in Los Angeles, then relocated and worked as a typesetter for several printing companies including the Chicago Tribune newspaper.
He switched careers several times, working as a department store manager, musician, TV repairman, electronics technician, appliance repairman, journeyman electrician, instrumentation and controls technician, maintenance mechanic and a few others.
Don learned to play saxophone while attending Horace Mann Jr. High, expanding to clarinet, bass clarinet, flute and every variety of saxophones while playing with a variety of musical groups. He played with numerous swing bands and stage orchestras in Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver and Las Vegas. His band, the “Mix-T-Motions,” played for hundreds of weddings in the Chicago area. He played with the pit orchestra at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas, the Fort Collins (Colorado) Symphony and the St. George Symphony in Utah.
He was also a member of the American Mensa Society and an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church of Fresno, California.
He then relocated to St. George, Utah, where he met and married Joan Bomboy. They moved from St. George to LaVerkin, then to Hurricane, Utah. They were married almost 21 years this March.
During his residency in Southern Utah, he was a member of the Writers Group in the St. George Spectrum newspaper, writing opinion columns for several years.
He was preceded in death by his parents and by brothers Earl Leon II, James Richard (Dick) and Robert Ray, and by his sisters Karyl Ann Holloway, Shirley Jean Bishop and Loys Dorthy Simmons.
He is survived by his wife Joan Louise, brothers Thomas Terry, David Lynn Jensen and by his sister Donna Faye Webb, and by his children Vicki Sue, James Donald, Timothy Lee, Daniel Joachim and Emily Faye.