Donald Joseph DeGeller
Donald Joseph DeGeller of Novato died peacefully of natural causes August 9, 2021, with his wife Maureen by his side. Son of Joseph and Marguerite DeGeller, he was born at Fabiola Hospital, Oakland, January 12, 1926. Don spent his early years in Ukiah and Tulare, California and Nampa, Idaho, where his father was employed as a manager of Montgomery Ward stores. The family settled
permanently in Redwood City, where Don graduated from Sequoia Union High School. After serving as an Aviation Radioman Third Class in the United States Navy during World War II, he was honorably discharged in 1946. He graduated from San Jose State College (now San Jose State University) in 1950 and received an LL.B.
degree from the University of Santa Clara School of Law in 1952. He practiced patent law for IBM in San Jose and was a patent lawyer and partner at Townsend and Townsend, San Francisco.
In 1975 Don and artist Joseph Neary opened “The Gallery” to sell paintings in the Montecito Shopping Center in San Rafael. Don and Maureen expanded the business to two separate locations in the Montecito Shopping Center, one devoted to needlework supplies and the other to art sales and custom picture framing. In 1985 they closed the needlework shop and relocated the art and custom framing business, renamed as Frame Crafters, to locations in the Bon Air Center, Greenbrae, and on Grant Avenue, Novato. They retired from the business in 1989.
A highly skilled still and motion picture photographer, he wrote, produced and filmed a 22-minute, 16MM color film on the U. S. Patent System, “Incentive to Progress,” as well as “Olympic Footprints,” which focused on the 1960 Winter Olympics held in Squaw Valley (now Palisades Tahoe), California.
Don’s family had a cabin at Homewood, California and throughout his life he spent many summers boating on Lake Tahoe and winters skiing at resorts in the Tahoe region.
As owner of the classically built wooden 36-foot ketch “Sea Waif,” for many years he sailed the waters of San Francisco Bay, the San Joaquin River Delta and off the coast of California, as well as participating in several
Master Mariner’s Regattas on the Bay. He earned his private pilot’s license in 1972, eventually becoming a certificated flight instructor while flying his Grumman/ American airplanes out of Gnoss Field, Novato.
Don is predeceased by his parents and his daughter Marguerite Spear. He is survived by his wife, Maureen; and sons Gregory (Marla) and Phillip (Valerie Edwards); grandson Martin Hamilton (Martha); granddaughters Kathryn DeGeller, Sarah DeGeller, Shannon Defoor and Kristina Spear; and great-granddaughters Stella and Sofia Hamilton; as well as his ex-wife, Florence Diepenbrock Stronck.
Don’s immediate family members gathered to scatter his ashes off the Marin County coast.