Don will be missed. He was a lifelong resident of Bloomfield, Conn., and proud Bloomfield High School graduate. Bloomfield is also my childhood home and that of Gibb Schreffler… not sure what’s in the water there!

Don was also a proud Vietnam veteran; one of the highlights of lunch in the interpretation building at Mystic Seaport was the occasional trash-talk between Don, who was R.A., and Jim, who was Special Forces.

His booming voice and generous heart helped many people find their way into the chantey and folk music world. I am lucky that I got a chance to know him, a little bit, before he moved on. I’m working on collecting some of the video from his last performances at the 2022 Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival.