Donald Lee Love, age 81, was taken from his rural West Unity, Ohio home to his Heavenly Home due to congestive heart failure on Oct 11, 2013.
He was born on July 12, 1932 to the late Neil and the late Eileen (Arnold) Love in Selma (near Muncie), Indiana. He was a 1951 graduate of the Dunkirk, Indiana High School and later graduated from Taylor University. He then graduated from the Methodist Hospital School of Medical Technology in Indianapolis. He pastored three Methodist churches while in school and later started two Baptist churches in the Philippines. He worked as a medical technologist in several hospitals in Indiana, in laboratories and as a teaching supervisor at Parkview in Fort Wayne and later at St. Mary Mercy in Gary, IN.
He married Barbara (Benjamin) Love in 1956. In 1973 the family moved to the Philippines as a medical-evangelistic missionaries under the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism. They were with the mission until 1989, when they returned home due to family health needs. Since that time, he was active in medical laboratories in Montpelier, Wauseon and Kendallville. More recently, he did the physical exams for insurance applicants. He was able several times to go to China, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Peru as a valuable team member for short-term medical-evangelism trips.
He accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior at the age of nine, from an early age he was active in church, and in recent years was a member of the First Baptist Church in Stryker, having various responsibilities. At various times he has been a teacher, deacon, director of Christian Education, leader in the boys’ program of AWANA, VBS, and preaching as needed in area churches and as a chaplain at CCNO. He served for 12 years on the Board of the area Community Pregnancy Centers, and also did tutoring for a number of years in the Montpelier school system. He was a gifted handyman and painter and enjoyed helping others. He was known for his generous, loving spirit of helpfulness and for his sense of humor.
He was preceded in death by his parents, brother; Vernal Love of Marion, Indiana and a half-sister Ruth Ann in New Haven, WV.
He is survived by his wife, Barbara, sister; Barbara Heinlein of North Port, FL, sister-in-law Ada Sue Love of Marion, IN and his three children, Deborah (Tom) Stevenson of Clayton, NJ, Rebecca (Larry) Nelson of Canmer, KY, and son Stephen (Kimberly) Love of Fontana, CA. He was also the proud loving grandpa to Andrew (Julie) Stevenson of Nicholasville, KY, Laura (Daryl) Neill of Hubert, NC, Ruth (Daniel) Johnston of Marshall, MI, Peter Stevenson of Lancaster, PA, Amanda Love of Gilbert, AZ, and Chloe Love also of Gilbert, AZ plus four step-grandchildren; Colby Nelson of Ocala, FL, Brian Nelson of Stryker, Ohio, Mackenzie Shelton-Love and Austin Shelton-Love of Fontana, CA. There are also six young great-grandchildren in KY, NC, and MI
Funeral services will be held at 11:00am Wednesday October 16, 2013 at the First Baptist Church in Stryker with Dr. Kent Craig, Pastor Dan Douglass and Pastor Matt Dodd officiating. Interment will follow in the Shiffler Cemetery. Friends may call at the church on Tuesday from 6:00-8:00pm and on Wednesday from 10:00am until service time. In lieu of flowers the family requests that memorial contributions be made to the Stryker Baptist Church, ABWE Mission Community Pregnancy Centers of Northwest Ohio or the Gideons International. The Grisier Funeral Home in Stryker has been entrusted with arrangements. Online condolences may be made to the family at www.GrisierFH.com.