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Memorial Keepers(1)
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Dan Grove
Don Grove, Jr
December 3rd, 1950 - December 30th, 2020
December 3rd, 1950 - December 30th, 2020
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Jenny
The dock at Uncle Don's with family after Aunt Barbara's service in January 2018.
Tina Haynes
My husband, Ron, and I first met Don and Barbara 20 some years ago at the dinner table at LeConte Lodge, in the Smoky Mountains at the top of Mt. LeConte. We became great friends who reconnected every year when we shared the same night's reservations to stay at the Lodge. After a day of mountain climbing, the men would sit on the porch of one of the cabins to discuss current events, politics, and solve the world's problems. (Barbara and I took naps!). We shared meals, served family style, at the same table each trip and quickly learned to pass any leftovers to Don. He could sure eat! We loved Don's intellect, wry sense of humor, kindness, and hearing about his myriad adventures. Don was the rare individual who sincerely wanted to understand how people with opposing views came to their conclusions. He asked probing questions, listened carefully, and above all, showed respect. We were absolutely thrilled when he accepted Jesus Christ as his lord and savior and spent many hours with him discussing the Bible, his spiritual growth, and Bible Study Fellowship. We are terribly saddened by his passing. We loved Don and Barbara deeply.
Randy & Gloria Hass
Just wanted to let Don's family to know that we are so sorry for your loss. We had been in Tellico Village a short time and Randy met Don in his Bible Study Fellowship class in September 2020. We had started attending First Baptist Church of Tellico Village and came to find out that Don was also attending there. Don was very welcoming and kind to us. He volunteered to come over to our home and look at our trees for us and tell us about them - what kind they were, when to prune them, what kind of nutrients they needed. He spent over an hour walking our lot with us and sharing his knowledge regarding out trees. He was so friendly, kind and generous with his time. We felt we had met a good, solid individual to call "friend." He was involved at church and other projects which related to our country and championing the freedoms and rights this country was founded on. He was a true patriot. We praise God that Don had accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. We will see him again!
Kathleen Sullivan
We had just moved here, August of 2019, when there was a knock at the door and Don Grove introduced himself. He chatted a bit then asked if we had a local church. When we said, no, he told us that First Baptist Church was having a Pig Roast, and that he had already bought us tickets and that we could follow him down to the church to attend the Pig Roast.......Well, with that introduction and his demeanor and the chatting, we went to the Pig Roast with him! He introduced us to every church member he could, including Charlie and Teresa, and we had a wonderful time. We were among the last to leave as we had to make sure that ALL of the pig was eaten. We walked out to our cars together and Don was telling us about the church, when he suddenly burst into tears.....and went quiet. We already liked him, and, despite his tallness and my shortness, I hugged him. After a minute or two, he took a deep breath, and, through his tears, he said, in a voice filled with awe, "The church took me in. They took me in, even though they knew where I came from..." He composed himself, and we hugged and said, good-bye, and my husband and I started attending First Baptist the next Sunday. And we found a loving Church Family. We kept in touch with Don, and did some "social distancing" with him in our driveway. I learned to make Sour Dough Bread and he became a weekly "customer" - no monetary payment, just the time he had to discuss the world and politics and Church sermons, and so on. I would text him that his bread was ready for pick-up and he would come up and we would discuss how to fix the world. We miss him, and we miss our discussions with him. Don was the one-of-a-kind man you always want to meet, but, rarely do meet. But once we met Don, we recognized his value and his knowledge and his integrity and how deep his faith in God had become. Don was very special, and we are blessed by knowing him.
Jill Grant
I always admired Don's skills with animals and trees, as well as his ingenuity in building just about anything. Once he rescued a baby bird that had fallen out of a tree (I think it was one he'd been cutting!) and smuggled it into the office on the Metro so he could feed it throughout the day, took it back home when it was big enough and built it an enclosure in his yard, taught it to feed itself, and once it was ready let it fly back into the wild. It seemed fitting to remember him in that light, and so I've adopted a tree in his memory through Casey Trees, a charitable organization that plants trees in the Nation's Capital, where Don lived and worked for many years. (I should also mention that I picked a Yoshino Cherry tree because Don had great stories about his time in Japan as a child.)
Wayne Duggin
I met Don when he first started visiting BSF at First Baptist and soon after Barbara died. He had made contact at Tellico Village Community Church through a neighbor so we had the memorial service there. I volunteered to play for her funeral and ended up playing the organ on the old hymns that he learned in his growing up years. That experience touched his heart so much that he became more interested and concerned about the future. So glad that he joined FBCTV and became involved. We kept in contact almost weekly and discussed his trips for Amish vegetables, politics, and life in general. He was dedicated to his work as a lawyer even to late night projects. I will miss his smiling face and thoughtful questions about God in BSF class as privately. Don was a thoughtful caring person and was so proud of building the stairway down to the water's edge at his house. Don will live on as a friend who loved God and sought to treat others with love and dignity. In fact, the last time I spoke to him was when he had returned from the Trump rally in Washington and stayed with his brother, Dan. May God bless the remaining family in knowing that he made peace with God and waits for us to join him in heaven.
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