Funeral homes often submit obituaries as a service to the families they are assisting. However, we will be happy to accept obituaries from family members pending proper verification of the death.
Donald L. Summers passed away Sept. 23, 2026, at Oregon Veterans Home in The Dalles, Oregon. Donald was born on Feb. 13, 1934, and was 92 at the time of passing.
Don was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. Upon graduating from high school in early 1953, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. After technical school training in electronics, he served in Germany as a flight simulator technician. He left active service in 1957 and returned to Baltimore, where he entered college. Upon acceptance for jet pilot training with the Air Force, he returned to active duty in 1959. Upon completion of pilot training in 1960, Don received his wings and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Force Reserves. He was then sent to Reno, Nevada, for additional training as a helicopter pilot. While there, he met and married the former Barbara J. Walton Phelps in 1961.
Don served at Air Force bases in Montana and Wyoming until 1966, when he was assigned a special flying assignment in Thailand. In 1967, he returned to that theater for a combat tour in South Vietnam in support of U.S. Army Special Forces there. Upon completion of a stateside tour of duty in South Dakota, he returned to Vietnam in 1970 for a flight instructor assignment with the South Vietnamese Air Force. From 1971-1974, he served at a military base near Tokyo, Japan, as a manager of helicopter operations. He completed the requirements for a bachelor’s degree at the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1975, prior to a command assignment in Kansas.
He retired from active duty in 1976 and went to work for Bell Helicopter International as a flight instructor in Isfahan, Iran. Upon his return in 1978, Don made his home in Fort Worth, Texas, and worked for a succession of Texas-based aerospace firms as a technical writer from 1979 until retiring in 1993. In 2002, he and Barbara moved to her hometown of Hood River, Oregon.
During his flying career, Don logged more than 7,000 hours of flying time in helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft. He never had an accident or was forced down as the result of hostile fire.
Don is survived by his daughter, Patty Summers of Hood River; stepchildren, Chris Phelps of Charlotte, North Carolina, Valerie Grant of Vancouver, Washington, and Cathi Harper of Castle Rock, Colorado; six grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
Services are pending with arrangements under the direction of Anderson’s Tribute Center, 1401 Belmont Ave., Hood River. Condolences may be shared with the family by visiting www.AndersonsTributeCenter.com.
Columbia Gorge News, Sept. 30, 2026
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