John H. Donaldson

John Harry Donaldson, 83, of Des Moines, Iowa, passed away on July 31, 2023 surrounded by his three children. After an extended stay in the ICU, he took his last breath after battling pneumonia.

John was born May 21, 1940, in Washington, IA, and was an only child to Harry and Helen Donaldson. He grew up on the family farm in Winfield, IA where they grew corn, soybeans and also raised sheep and pigs. John always prided himself in saying he was a pig farmer.


Growing up in Winfield, John attended grades 1st-10th in the now vacant Wyman school in Wyman, Iowa. During his school days, he was a member of 4H and FFA, winning several ribbons at county fairs for the pigs he raised. After graduating from Winfield-Mt Union in 1958, John attended Iowa State University for Agriculture, Agriculture Operations, and Related Sciences. He continued his education at Iowa Wesleyan as a proud member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity from 1960-1963 earning a BA in Business.

On April 24, 1963, John joined the Army where he served as an intelligence officer. In March of 1969, he was honorably discharged.

After finishing at Iowa Wesleyan, John moved to Chicago to work and continue his studies, attending night school at Northwestern for business marketing. While working as an insurance investigator he encountered many ‘characters’ of ‘60’s Chicago.

This is when he met his future wife Regina T. Poskus. Through God’s providence, a plain Iowa farm boy met a beautiful girl from Lithuania, and as fate would have it, their apartments were on the same floor. For some reason, they frequently met either in the hallway or the elevator. Through some matchmaking efforts by the manager of the apartment building, they fell in love. They were married in October of 1966. This coming October would have been their 57th wedding anniversary.

John’s business pursuits led this young family to several varied cities; Chicago, Milwaukee, Atlanta, St. Louis, and finally Des Moines where he had resided for 51 years.

After managing an audio-visual store, John decided to go it alone and started his own repping business. He established Summit Sales and Marketing in 1980 and became a factory rep for home audio systems before ultimately repping industrial security systems which he continued to do until the time of his passing.

John was competitive and was active in sports for most of his life. In high school he lettered in baseball, basketball and football. In the ‘70’s he played in a competitive fast pitch softball league in Des Moines. He also coached Y league basketball and coached his son’s club soccer teams. He was an avid golfer rarely missing a Saturday golf game with a 4-some that played together for over 20 years. His love of golf extended to volunteering as a marshal for the annual Senior PGA Tour Principal Charity Classic, dutifully shushing the spectators.

He was also a voracious reader, most notably on the history of the U.S. civil war and WWII. He was especially fond of reading and exploring the teachings of the Bible and daily devoted the first couple of hours in the morning to studying it along with his daily devotionals.

Being a member of a church was a big part of John’s life. In 2007 he became a member of Westkirk Presbyterian Church and was very active serving as an elder since 2009 and becoming head of security in 2011. He took his role in security seriously and was an active member of FBSN (Faith Based Security Network).

John is survived by his son, Steven; daughters, Rebecca, and Jennifer (Scott) Swanson; granddaughters, Kaylin, Addison, and Alainna; and sisters-in-law, Laima Gallo and Linda Poskus of Rochester, NY. He was preceded in death by his wife, Regi; and his parents, Harry and Helen Donaldson.

A public visitation will be held from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Friday, August 11 at Hamilton’s on Westown Parkway in West Des Moines, IA. A funeral service will be held and live-streamed from Westkirk Presbyterian Church in Urbandale, IA on Saturday, August 12 at 10:00 a.m. A graveside service will follow at Elm Grove Cemetery in Washington, IA at 2:00 p.m.

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