Personal & Mission Statement
Born in Berlin in 1946, Don and his family emigrated from Germany to Cuba in 1949. They left Cuba for the U.S. shortly after the Castro regime took power. However, Don maintained his German roots by visiting his grandparents and uncles in Berlin and Munich during the summer months.
Don started his business career with the DuPont Company in 1969 where he held various positions in sales, product management, and marketing in the domestic market, and in Spain as Market Development Manager, and later as Sales & Marketing Manager for Latin America and Asia-Pacific in the Medical and Industrial Imaging businesses. After 26 years in DuPont, he joined a privately held chemical trading company in Delaware for another 17 years. Don has been married for 52 years, and he and his wife, a retired speech & language pathologist, have an adopted daughter who is a registered nurse at a nursing home. After retiring in 2013, he joined the Delaware Saengerbund, and became its Culture Committee Chairman.
Don joined the GAHF Board of Directors in 2018 and was elected as 1st Vice-President, and 2 years later, was elected President of GAHF. Don feels that GAHF’s mission, goals, and commitments play an important role in preserving the legacy that our founders envisioned. This includes our Washington, D.C. museum whose exhibits and programs have been promoting the rich history of German-Americans to visitors from all over the world since 2010. Our fundraising efforts will require the full participation of all our Board members by finding new revenue streams beyond the financial support generated by our annual galas. In addition to events that tell the story of our cultural heritage, our museum will also support our faithful clubs and individual members with virtual programs, outreach through our website, our social media presence, and our newly revised Spring 2023 The Ambassador newsletter/magazine.