14/02/2025
It is fun to read about people from Decatur who left and made a difference. Donald Lynch did graduate from Decatur, and We printed this whole story about Donald Lynch....wrote about his death, but never said when. He died September 29th 2021.
Remembering Donald Jefferson Lynch Class of ‘59
One of the fun things about working on the paper has been reading interesting stories, old and new, about people from our town. I have a list of a few that I want to write about, and that will come soon, but things come by the office that come first.
This story is about Donald Lynch. He was born in Arkansas, but moved to Decatur at a young age and he graduated from Decatur High School in 1959. I did not know him, but classmate Ralph Plott, brought his obituary in to the paper, and along with it contact numbers for people to reach out to, to discuss Lynch’s interesting life.
Plott wrote that “He (Lynch) did not want to document anything of his life story and we all feel that’s a shame. He served his country well for many years, and it’s too bad that his life can’t be honored by more than just his family and close friends.,”
Sharon Zollar High graduated with Lynch, said he was a lot of fun, but a very private person, which kind of goes along with other things said about him. She said that he and Plott were like brothers, so I can imagine the sadness that Plott felt with his passing.
I contacted Don’s wife Margaret, and she wrote:
Don preferred living on the edge, pushing his experiences to the extreme and he could turn the most benign incident into an hour long story. Those characteristics set on the stage of 30 years in the Foreign Service encountering high level political figures as well as “back-room junkies” made him a larger-than-life figure to most.Margaret.
Don’s friend was a fountain of knowledge, and shared it. Rick Morgan wrote:
Don grew up in a farming family near Decatur. He left home after high school to join the Marines in the late 50’s. He was assigned to the elite State Department Embassy Security Guard company and began his world travels as a Marine. As an Marine, he was sent to our Embassy in Paris, and also to Jordan. In Jordan, he became friends with the future King of Jordan, who along with Don, raced go karts on the airport runway and rode horses into the Jordanian desert for fun. Don was also detailed to Vienna when President Kennedy met with Premier Khrushchev in 1961, and stood guard during their summit.
Don was hooked on international travel, and joined the State Department when he left the Marines, first as a communicator, and later as a Foreign Service Officer. He was assigned to our Embassy in Paris, where he met his first wife, Helyn, who was also a Foreign Service Officer. They served together in the Lubumbashi (Congo), Cairo, Mauritius, Shanghai and Bern, Switzerland.
Don learned to fly small airplanes and used his skills to take pictures of fighting armies from above during a civil war in the Congo. He and Helyn were evacuated from the Embassy in Cairo during the Six Days War with Israel, and they opened up the Consulate in Shanghai (after President Nixon reestablished diplomatic relations with China in 1979. Don recapped his appearance on the world stage when President Reagan met Premier Gorbachev in 1985 in Geneva, Switzerland.
After Don retired from the Foreign Service, he pursued another passion, sailing, which he continued for more than a decade, sailing the East Coast and the Bahamas in his ketch, Alderbaran.
Don met Margaret, his second wife, in 1995, and he accompanied her to numerous foreign assignments, including, Nepal, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, El Salvador, and Bulgaria. His trusty camera always at his side, Don captured the world in his lens, from the majesty of the Himalayas to the birds of his retirement home in northern Georgia. He and Margaret found another passion, gardening, and he spent his last years working in their gardens. Rick Morgan
Lynch and wife Margaret settled in a country home, near the picturesque town of Blue Ridge, Georgia in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
Thanks to the above for putting some more history into our archives for people to read, and enjoy, in the future.
The poem at his memorial service must have described him as he didn’t seem to have much fear.
For the truth is that I already know as much about my fate as I need to know.. The day will come when I will die. So the only matter of consequence before me is what I will do with my allotted time. I can remain on shore, paralyzed with fear, or I can raise my sails and dip and soar in the breeze.” Richard Bode
