Donald Reese Haugen was born to Art and Ruby (Lindelien) Haugen on October 25, 1944, 6th of 8 children in Harmony, Minnesota. He passed away January 25, 2021, at his home in Snowflake, Arizona.
Donald played many sports and had many friends; but excelled at basketball. He graduated from Harmony and went on to college. After graduating from Winona State University, he went to New Richard, Minnesota, for his first teaching and his coaching career of basketball began.
In 1978, he and his family moved to Rockford, Minnesota, where he continued teaching math and continued his love of coaching basketball. His favorite saying was “ARMS UP.” Later in his life, he returned to teaching after his move to Moorhead, Minnesota, where he had wonderful neighbors that turned into family. Hendrum, Minnesota, was his last teaching and basketball coaching job before he retired and moved to Arizona to live with his daughter and family.
Throughout his whole life, when not rough housing as a child, playing pranks on his siblings, playing sports, teaching, coaching and being a father, he was camping or fishing or both.
Being on the water in his boat or a frozen lake in a fish house when school was cancelled was his happy place. And if fish were not biting, you could find him in the woods hunting for pheasant or cutting wood to later split and stack. Don will always be remembered for his caring and compassionate heart, and his blue eyes that always had a twinkle even up until he took his last breath at home surrounded by his family.
He is preceded in death by his parents; brothers, Allen, Harlan, and Kenneth, and infant brother; son, Scott; and grandson, Matthew. He is survived by his daughter, Dawn Haugen O’Brien (Brady); grandsons, Kelsey Kutler and Donald James Overby; and many cousins, colleagues, and friends; and he will be remembered in our hearts forever.
To send flowers
to the family or plant a tree
in memory of Donald Reese Haugen, please visit our floral store.