Donald Hougland

Donald Hougland died on February 25, 2021, two days after his 92nd birthday.  Raised in Olathe, Kansas, he graduated from Olathe High School in 1947.  While still in high school, he joined the National Guard and later enlisted in the Marine reserves.  After being discharged, while serving as a Johnson County deputy sheriff, he met and then married Dorothy Kessler in 1952.  They were married almost sixty-nine years.

He attended Baker University before finishing his BA at KSTC (Emporia State University), while working full time for the Kansas Highway Patrol.  Following his time in law enforcement, Donald moved to a decades long career in insurance claims management, initially with Farmers Alliance in McPherson, KS.  While in McPherson, he started his own business, Hougland Claim Service, moving on after wearing out two station wagons.  The majority of his career was in claims, specializing in workman’s compensation with Dodson Insurance Group.  While with Dodson, he earned his Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriting designation, no small accomplishment.  He also taught insurance classes for ten years, lecturing on the intricacies of insurance to eager students, whose appreciative ears reduced his need to share those intricacies with his not-as-eager family.

Donald loved to learn and travel. He was known to drop new words into conversations with friends and family, who would then need him to define them. He devoured the newspaper every day, making it a marathon event in his retirement, even as the newspaper was reduced in size.  The mountains in Colorado were special to him and visits to Westcliffe and Estes Park always “recharged his batteries”.  Travel and international adventures became a big part of Donald and Dorothy’s lives as they added most of Europe to their “been there” list.  One truly remarkable trip was going through the Grand Canyon in dory boats (not those inflated rafts).  Many found his recall of details from travels and reading both amazing and useful for crosswords, planning, accurate directions.

If anyone was a people person, Donald was that.  He enjoyed meeting and visiting with people known and new.  When he asked a question, he absolutely was interested in the answer.  Family lovingly referred to his questioning techniques as Twenty Questions or as being subjected to the Third Degree.  He connected easily with friends and strangers alike, due in part to his kind and sincere disposition.  He could see both sides of an issue, compliment someone on a job well done and at times, pass on nonchalant wisdom such as, “trust people until they prove they can’t be trusted”, a viewpoint attributed to his father.

Following retirement, Donald was a volunteer, first as a researcher for Call to Action at a local TV station, where he was able to right some wrongs.  Then he was a long-time host at St. Joseph Hospital and his final volunteer work gig was in the What Not Shop at Lakeview Village.

Donald leaves behind his wife, Dorothy, two children, Becky Greer (Irvin) and Karl Hougland (Marlys), four grandchildren, Cezanne Wikoff (Brandon), Tyler Greer (Emily), Ricky Hougland, Kyle Robbins (Tim) and seven great grandchildren.

A life well-lived and a man well-loved.  Memorials can be given to Lakeview Foundation or to Asbury United Methodist Church .  A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, May 22nd at 11 a.m. at Asbury United Methodist Church, 5400 W. 75th St., Prairie Village, KS.