Born Donangelo Schuman in Chicago, Illinois, Don spent his childhood in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where his father was a political science professor.
After being admitted at Reed, he drove from Massachusetts and arrived on campus with 56 cents in his pocket and a half tank of gas. “The only reason I got here at all is that I had a hitchhiker I’d picked up so I could buy another tank of gas,” he recalled. He needed some cash, and the Reed maintenance crew hired him that first week, giving him enough money on which to live.
Don wrote his thesis, “An Epistemological Enquiry into Whitehead’s The Concept of Nature,” advised by Profs. Edwin Garlan [philosophy 1946–73] and David French [anthropology and linguistics 1947–88], graduating with degrees in philosophy and anthropology.
After teaching for a while, he left the field. But his brother’s death in 1962 shocked Don into wanting to do something meaningful. Three years later, he received a master’s in teaching from Portland State University and returned to education, teaching English and media studies at Sunset High School in Beaverton, Oregon.
Don’s brother introduced him to books on raja, hatha, and bhakti yoga when he was in his teens, setting him on a spiritual course. In the ’70s, he discovered Guru Maharaji, who inspired him to meditate extensively and helped him begin his “path of love.”Don wrote six novels girded by his spiritual philosophy and was a passionate environmentalist.
His first wife was Bette Brown (now Bette Rice), who survives him, as do their three children, Dieter Stargard, Karl Schuman, and Allison Suran.
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