Donald Carlton Mead, 90, of Louisville, KY, died on August 30, 2025 in Traverse City, Michigan. He was born on January 16, 1935 in Houston, Texas, to the late Brian and Lucy (Key) Mead. On November 29, 1986, he married Carol June Plantinga.
Donald Mead's schooling took place at his mother's knee in Lillebonne, France, in Scarsdale (NY) and at Institut Le Rosey in Rolle, Switzerland; he graduated from Scarsdale High School. He earned a bachelor's degree from Haverford College and a doctorate in Economics from Yale University.
Due to his pacifist beliefs, Don became a Conscientious Objector when he was drafted in the 1950s. He was assigned to alternative service through Church World Service, administering emergency food aid to Palestinian refugees in Egypt. This experience informed his ensuing doctoral research into small enterprise activity among Palestinian refugees in Egypt. While living in Cairo he met Jolanda Heijenbrok. They later married in 1960 at her home in Den Haag, the Netherlands. They raised three children together: Russell, Jennifer, and Malcolm. Don's career in development economics took the family to live in American college settings alternating with overseas research and planning work: Cairo (Egypt), Kampala (Uganda), Amherst (NY), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Chapel Hill (NC), Clinton (NY), Bangkok (Thailand) and East Lansing (MI.)
Based out of Michigan State University for the rest of his career, Don's overseas work continued after he married Carol Plantinga in 1986, with professional assignments in Kigali (Rwanda), Harare (Zimbabwe) and Pietermaritzburg (South Africa.) For many years, Don and Carol's primary residence was in Glen Arbor, Michigan. They have had a home in Louisville, KY, since 2012. Don and Carol were not only often heading overseas but also on the road or in the air to visit their combined family of six children, from coast to coast.
Don and Carol embraced living abroad and learning as much as they could about the people and circumstances wherever they lived. They shared a deep faith expressed in their continuous involvement in the Presbyterian Church, both locally and internationally. After Don retired, Don and Carol engaged in mission trips to Malawi, DRC, Mali, and Ethiopia. Don also made peace-witness trips to Palestine and Syria. They were longtime members at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Beulah, Michigan, and at Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church in Louisville. Don served as a member of Session many times, and was a frequent contributor to adult education at his churches; his recurring themes for these classes were to offer context for places experiencing enduring conflict, especially in the Holy Land. To his dying day, his yearning was ever to find a way to peace.
Don loved being near the shore of Cape Cod or Lake Michigan; and he loved the mountains and forests, especially at Montreat, NC, where his maternal family had a home. He had a fine tenor voice and sang all through his life: at work camps when he served in post-war rebuilding in the International Zivildienst in Germany, in the choir at his church in New Haven while at graduate school, with his guitar at home with his children, every Sunday at church with his beloved hymns, or at the fire pit on the beach at Glen Arbor, surrounded by his grandchildren. He was passionately interested in his children and grandchildren's lives and was a tireless booster for their ambitions, hopes, and dreams. He was so very proud of them all.
Don was deeply, courageously, and unwaveringly faithful: faithful to his family and faithful to the causes to which he was called early in life to learn about, advocate for, and stay present to: the Presbyterian Church; peace in the world, justice for Palestinians and for all the oppressed.
Preceded in death by his parents, his two brothers Brian Mead and Richard K. Mead, and his first wife, Don is survived by his wife of 39 years, Carol Mead, and their six children: Amy Plantinga Pauw (Alan Pauw), Victor Plantinga (Karen), Russell Urban-Mead (Wendy), Andrew Plantinga (Alexandra Regan), Jennifer Mead (Douglas Yarrow), and Malcolm Mead-O'Brien (Beth). He is also survived by his grandchildren Kass, Charlie (Madeline Batt), Noah, Caelan, Grace, and Bryna; and Clara (Sean Wasserman), Andrea, Emily (Sunny Peta), Lauren, Case, and Greta.
A local memorial service will be held at the Episcopal Church Home chapel at 4-6 PM on September 20, 2025 with the Rev. Lisa Tolliver officiating. Plans for interment of ashes in Beulah, Michigan, will be finalized at a later time. Memorial gifts may be made to Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza: https://afedj.org/institution/ahli-arab-hospital-gaza-city/ or to the mission ministry of Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church in Louisville: https://crescenthill.church/
Great is thy faithfulness, Great is thy faithfulness,
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed thy hand hast provided;
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.