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HANSON DONALD WALTER
DONALD WALTER HANSON
Donald Walter Hanson (“Donny”) passed away at his home in Potomac, MT, from melanoma cancer on March 28 at the age of 79.
Donny was the only child of Walter and Virginia Hanson and was born on November 2, 1931, in Hackensack, NJ. There he attended school until the family moved to Allendale, NJ, where he graduated from Ramsey High School in 1949. He worked for a year in New York City before joining the Navy in 1950. He was a Quartermaster 2nd class and had just passed the test for 1st Class Quartermaster when he obtained his honorable discharge from the Navy to attend college. He attend Bowling Green State University on the GI Bill going straight through, graduating in 2 ½ years. He was a member of Kappa Sigma Fraternity. It was there he met and married Carolyn (Hartzell) Hanson, his wife of 54 years.
In 1957 the couple moved to the Cleveland, OH, area where Donny worked in display advertising for the Cleveland Plain Dealer for several years. He then worked for Buttenheim Publishing Company on Contractors and Engineers Magazine relocating his family to Warren Township, NJ, when he became the National Sales manager. In 1965 he made the choice to Join International Publications relocating the family to Chagrin Falls, OH.
In 1978 the entrepreneurial spirit got the best of Donny when he and partner, Mike Hayes, started Business Journal Publishing Company publishing the weekly tabloid, Northern Ohio Business Journal. With the addition of a third partner, Dave Jacobs, the trio expanded Northern Ohio Business Journal into the state-wide magazine Ohio Business Magazine. Soon the trio started Michigan Business Magazine, Florida Business Magazine, Detroit Business and Naples Business. He was a member of the Association of Area Business Publications eventually serving as its president. Throughout his working career, his travels took him to all 50 states and 23 foreign countries.
In 1994, he retired, as did his wife Carolyn, after 24 years of teaching at Chagrin Falls High School and the couple moved to Potomac, MT, where by popular demand he eventually earned the title as “Mayor of Potomac.”
He is survived by his wife, Carolyn; daughter, Kimberly Morgan (Clive); son, Kyle (Jeanne), Jack, Pat and Deanna Nash of Bozeman and Rick and Chantelle Nash of Helena. If the person that dies with the most friends wins, Donny clearly was a winner. Hundreds of people from all over the country and all walks of life counted Donny as a great friend and mentor.
There will be a private family funeral service on Friday, May 6th, followed by a celebration of his life at the Cully’s in Potomac starting a 1:00 p.m. on May 7th.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that tax-deductible donations be made to the St. Patrick Hospital Foundation/Cancer Center, 500 West Broadway, Missoula, MT 59802.
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