The Reverend Donald Gilmore Carey was born in Santa Monica, California on January 3, 1930.

He is survived by his wife Louise, daughter Anna of Morro Bay, son Norman of El Segundo, and son John of San Jose with his wife Katrina and their daughter Romana.

Don graduated from Valley College and the University of Redlands, and from the San Francisco Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity and Doctor of Theology degree. He studied in Jerusalem at the American School of Oriental Research and in Leeds, England at Wesley College, under the sponsorship of the World Council of Churches.

He became minister of the Orcutt and Los Alamos Presbyterian churches in 1958. Later in Dumaguete City – Philippines he taught the Old Testament at Silliman University, training leaders for the United Church of Christ in the Philippines. Upon his return, he became pastor of the Morro Bay Presbyterian Church for seventeen years.

Don was always active in the community. He was a founding board member of the Interfaith Initiative of Santa Barbara County, served on the board of the Women's Shelter Program, the Ombudsman program of the Area Agency on Aging and the Peoples' Self-Help Housing Program.

Saint Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Santa Barbara was blessed to have him as a Parish Associate, a choir member and the Minute Clerk for the Presbytery of Santa Barbara.

A memorial service was held at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church on Saturday, October 3.

Memorial contributions may be made to St. Andrew's (4575 Auhay Dr., Santa Barbara, CA 93110, telephone (805) 967-6327) or to Peoples' Self-Help Housing (3533 Empleo Street, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93401).

Born and raised in the small town of Trenton, in the southwest corner of Nebraska, Don was the great grandson of a pioneer sheriff (later judge), and the grandson of a pioneer founder of a country newspaper. He grew up, it seemed, with printer's ink flowing in his veins. Working on his dad's newspaper in the winter and local farms in the summer, he somehow managed to graduate from high school even though both parents had passed away and his freedom exceeded his maturity.

Don began college with a major journalism at the University of Nebraska, but after one year, he joined the Marine Corps for a four-year stint, which included a summer on the French Riviera, and concluded with a year in Korea.

Having been introduced to electronics in the Marine Corps, Don's goals changed and on his return to the University of Nebraska, he switched majors to electrical engineering. While in college Don married his landlady, Delia. They had one son, Mark, born in 1957. During that time, he worked as a prison guard; now therein lies an education!

Don earned his B.S.E.E. in 1959 and was hired by General Motors in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as a Technical Writer (that ink still flowed) for their AC Spark Plug Division. He went on to work on several configurations and modifications of the Bombing Navigational System (BNS), with its accurate analog computer (against which he said the new fangled digital computer would never be able to compete!). Don was then assigned to the Titan 11 Missile program and stayed with that through Installation and Checkout and one major modification program. Then came Apollo. After completion of most of the basic Apollo Technical Manuals, Don became a field engineer on the Apollo Command Module at Grumman Aircraft in New York. About a year later, he transferred to the Carousel Navigation System supporting the early test fights at Pan Am and later repairing the systems in support of the domestic and international commercial airlines at JFK International in New York. During this period Don and Delia divorced.

Don and Mark moved to Goleta, CA when in October 1973 he was transferred to the DELCO division of GM. He again worked on the BNS, following which came a potpourri of assignments: Titan 11 modification programs; demonstrating the Carousel Navigation System to the Air Force; performing a human factors evaluation of touch screen CRT for the automobile instrument panel and a multitude of proposals.

Then came the Light Armored Vehicle (LAV) which would dominate Don's existence (and not visa versa) until his retirement. Between LAV programs, he improved the efficiency of the factory repair of field returns. In the midst of these many efforts, Don earned his MS in Systems Management. After 34 years with GM, Don retired in 1993. In 1974, he succeeded in enticing his true love, Mollie, to move from New York to California and marry him; this new union survived the ultimate test of combining three teenagers (Mark, and Mollie's children, Edward and Carol) under one roof, successfully resulting in three wise, mature adults and two proud, content and happy retirees.

Don and Mollie loved to travel; they journeyed to Africa, Europe, the Middle East, China, and other Far Eastern countries, and took many driving trips through much of the United States.

As dedicated members of the Bahá’í Faith, they devoted the majority of their time to supporting their local community. Don was the long-term editor and publisher of a monthly Bahá’í newsletter and together he and Mollie were the bedrock of their Bahá’í community, keeping their home open every Friday night for people to gather and learn more about this unifying religion.

Don also served as a Bahá’í representative on the Interfaith Initiative of Santa Barbara County and on the steering committee for the Peace Education Project; he also served as chairman of Homes for People and the United Nations Association.

His goal: reconciliation and peace influenced by the teachings of his faith.

Don was delighted to welcome daughters-in-law Nazineen (Mark) and Sarah (Edward) to the family, and the word thrilled is woefully inadequate to describe his feelings at the births of Mark and Nazinin's sons, Shawheen and Kayvan. Don adored his two grandsons.