Don, 81, died January 16, 2007, in Seattle, Washington. He was born May 5, 1925, in Meridian, Idaho. Don was in the Army Air Corps 1943-46 during WWII. He jumped at Missoula during the 1946-47 seasons getting eight fire jumps.

Seattle Times: “During the summers on Vashon Island, folks used to drive up to the old Dairy Queen window to satisfy their cravings for ‘Blizzards’ and sundaes. But no one, the locals like to say, did it with the flair that Donald Eugene Eastly did. The retired veterinarian known as ‘Doc’ would pull up to the drive-through window in a horse-drawn wagon, lean over and order his usual vanilla cone. Dr. Eastly, who took hundreds of homecoming queens and Santa Clauses in that same red wagon to football games and Christmas-tree lightings, died Tuesday of a heart attack, his family said. He was 81.

Dr. Eastly was the son of a small-town newspaper owner. After high school, he joined what was then the Army Air Corps during World War II.

He spent two years at the University of Washington before leaving for a high-paying job as a logger. He quickly realized why the job paid so well:
Many of his colleagues were killed by falling trees or by falling out of trees.

In 1949, opting for a safer profession, Dr. Eastly completed his undergraduate degree at Washington State University and enrolled at the veterinary school there. He met his future wife at a square dance on campus. ‘He was like a John Wayne character. He was larger than life, recalled Patricia Eastly.He worked for a couple of years before saving enough to buy a clinic from a retiring veterinarian in West Seattle. In later years, he commuted there from Vashon Island. He retired in 1992 after a 35-year career.