Death of Donald H. Rhoads

Don was born in Fargo, North Dakota, to James and Mary Rhoads on Sept. 17, 1937. He was the youngest of three sons, Berton and Gayle being his older brothers. His father, a pastor and denominational worker, moved the family several times, including stops in South Dakota and Minnesota. Don’s formative years were spent in Texas, first in Forth Worth and then in Keene. 

After completing his studies at Southwestern Junior College, Don enrolled at Emmanuel Missionary College, where his primary focus of study was mathematics. There, he met his future wife, Jean Schlunt from Drayton Plains, MI. They both graduated from EMC in 1958 and were married shortly thereafter on June 15. Don was accepted into a PhD program at Rice University but completed only an MA, which he received in 1961. He went on to earn his PhD at the University of Michigan in 1968. 

In 1963, Jean had their first baby, Karl (AU ’86). Anne-Marie followed in 1965 and Jill in 1968.

In 1962, Don started teaching at Andrews University and continued in that role until 1972, when he took a one-year leave of absence. That one year turned into 26. Don and Jean moved the family to Bloomington, Indiana, to start a “hi-fi” store, Alan Audio. In addition, to starting a new business, Don built a house on land a few miles north of Bloomington, in a rural area called Modesto. The business had its ups and downs, and Don finally sold it in 1986. 

In 1987-88, Don built another house, this one for his parents. In 1992, he added a major addition to his own house. For the next few years, he kept busy in various endeavors including consulting for noise abatement and trying his hand at writing a novel, which he never finished. When a job in the Department of Mathematics at Andrews University opened up in 1998, Don applied for his old job and got it back. In 2000, Don became chair of the department and remained in that role until he retired in 2006.

After retirement, Don busied himself with finishing Euclidean Geometry and its Subgeometries, a book started by his mentors at Andrews, Ed Specht and Harold Jones. Don and Keith Calkins worked together on editing it, and it was published in 2015. 

In 2018, shortly after their 60th wedding anniversary, his beloved Jean fell ill and died of liver cancer in November of that year.  Don’s life was never really the same. Late in life, he referred to this time as the “empty years.” The COVID pandemic did not help. In 2022, he, too, was diagnosed with cancer, acute myeloid leukemia. He took the chemo and with the single-mindedness that characterized so much of his life. He put one foot in front of another for 14 months. In mid-November 2023, after the doctors told him there was nothing else they could do, he went on hospice and passed away a month later on December 16, in his own bed, in the house he had built 50 years before. 

He is survived by his three children, five grandchildren, and numerous great-grandchildren.