"I am going out," he said a few weeks ago, "in style" - referring to some LL Bean shirts with monogrammed initials on the cuffs, and so he did. After a year and a half of fighting lung cancer, Donald Wade Nissley, P.E. died on the morning of October 1, 2007, at his NEW home in Baldwin, MD. He was 68 years old.

A native of Lancaster, PA, descended from notable early European settlers in the Herr and Hess and Nissley families, Don was a graduate of Manheim Township High School , and then attended Franklin and Marshall College, Bainbridge Academy, and the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis.

Ed Hess introduced him (on horseback, more or less) to Winnie Faye Todd, and they became ‘one flesh’ soon after his graduation from the Academy, with appropriate pomp and Naval swords in the air. Then Don served with the Marines during the Vietnam War. When he left the Navy, he and Winnie moved to Baldwin, MD, and bought a small farm with a barn for-- horses and an old farmhouse where they raised Heather and Douglas. It was an ideal location, close to Baltimore, where Don spent most of his career as an electrical engineer, not far from Lancaster, close enough to the Chesapeake Bay for easy access to their boat, and in the center of horse country. Early on they purchased a second lot, next to the farm, a place where the horses could graze, but also where they planned to build a home for retirement years.

They designed the house they wanted, and were in the process of building it when Don’s cancer was discovered, and although it slowed them down, they kept on working away and finally completed (at least enough to move in) the dream home just a month ago. Don by then was usually in a wheel chair, directing the operations, and the moving process, with aplomb. His fine sense of humor and dedication to caring for the people around him made up for the energy that was waning, and then, at the end of September, it quickly waned completely, and he died.

I remember him, of course, as a splendid younger brother (though I often introduced him as my oldest brother), from the thorough enjoyment he had on his first costumed Halloween, to a time we strayed far into a wheat field, to rides into the City of Lancaster on the bus, to the days he served as my "assistant" when I was a junior magician, and how we harvested tobacco with our grandfather Nissley on the Labor Day weekends in our youth. We were raised in a solidly Presbyterian family - our grandfather Wade was the comptroller of Franklin and Marshall College; our father was an accountant, and our mother eventually a District Justice in the Pennsylvania courts. We lived with a certain amount of privilege - not knowing how much, I suppose, as children tend to take that for granted - at the southern border of Manheim Township, and we were raised on good food and good family in equal batches. No one lived our heritage more honestly than Don, holding on to values and applying them in good faith. He finished the course with courage and, as he said, style.

I admire him, his memory, and his lovely wife Winnie, and am grateful to have been his brother and the uncle of his children and his granddaughter, Hana.

Tom Nissley

October 2, 2007

DONALD WADE NISSLEY ‘64

Don Nissley died 1 October 2007 at home in Baldwin, MD, after a two year battle with lung cancer.    

Born in Lancaster, PA on 24 February 1939, he often said he was a 39er forever. Don graduated from Manheim Township High School in 1957. He attended Franklin and Marshall College prior to enlisting in the Navy. He received a Fleet appointment to the Academy. A member of the Eleventh Company, Don was active in WRNV, fencing, sailing, and the Chapel Choir. He graduated in June 1964 and was married three days later to Winnie Todd on 6 June 1964 .

Don served in the surface fleet and was on a number of recovery missions for the space capsules. In  1966 he served with the 5^th  Marines in Viet Nam as a Naval Gunfire Liaison Officer. His last cruise was a flag waving tour around Africa .

He reentered civilian life after 5 years, but stayed active in the reserves for a number of years. He was a senior engineer with the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company. He then started his own electrical contracting company servicing large industrial complexes. He received his M.B.A. from Loyola College  in Maryland . In later years Don was a senior professional engineer with Tiepoint Engineering in Baltimore. 

For many years Don jousted with the Amateur Jousting Club of Maryland, as one of their top riders. He was an avid sailor, cruising most of the Chesapeake Bay.

In the summer of 2005 he decided to retire and build his dream home. Even while fighting cancer, he managed to get the job done. He and Winnie moved into the house in August 2007.

He is survived by his wife of 43 years Winnie Todd; daughter and son-in-law, Heather and Faruk Kara of Cambridge, England; a son, Douglas of Atlanta, GA; one granddaughter, Hana; and a brother

The Rev. Thomas W. Nissley of Stamford, CT.

Memorial services were conducted at the Union United Methodist Church in Baldwin, MD on 9 October 2007.

Internment at Arlington National Cemetery, with full military honors, was held 9 January 2008.

Reprinted from the USNA Alumnae magazine “Shipmate”