Donath, Benjamin Boyd (1949-2018)

DONATH, JONES, JOHNSON

Posted By: Paul Nagy (email)
Date: 6/19/2018 at 14:09:14

Benjamin Boyd Donath
August 31, 1949 ~ May 29, 2018 (age 68)

Benjamin Boyd Donath, 68, died on Tuesday, May 29, 2018, of pancreatic cancer.

Born on August 31, 1949, in Lincoln, Illinois, Ben was a son of Benjamin Carl and Ruth Helen (Jones) Donath. After graduating from Lincoln High School, he attended Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois. In 1971, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and philosophy. Two weeks later, he married his college sweetheart and fellow philosophy major, Tina (Johnson) Donath.

After their wedding, the Donaths moved to Oxford, Ohio, for graduate school at Miami University of Ohio, where Ben earned masters’ degrees in mathematics and statistics in 1973. He, subsequently, completed four years of work toward a Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Iowa before accepting a faculty position at Buena Vista University in the fall of 1977.

Ben would teach mathematics at Buena Vista University for forty-one years until March 2018. His passion for excellence was readily apparent in the way he encouraged every one of his students to reach their highest potential. Indeed, Ben found his greatest source of professional joy in seeing his students meet and exceed their own expectations.

In 2004, he received the George Wythe Award, BVU’s highest honor for excellence in teaching. A student who nominated him for this award noted that when Ben helped students to master difficult concepts rather than “taking off in a Ferrari” and expecting students to catch up on their bikes, “he would say ‘Follow me and I’ll show you the way,’ and he would get on his own bike and ride with us the entire journey.”

During his teaching career at BVU, Ben served as Associate Dean of Faculty from 1992 to 1997, and as Dean of the School of Science from 2006 to 2018. In April 2018, he was inducted into BVU’s Order of Cumberland and Tollefson for exceptional service to the University.

While teaching was his life’s greatest calling, Ben was also an avid reader and vegetable gardener. He enjoyed playing the piano, especially in his youth and young adulthood. He traveled to China twice in the late 1980s as part of a cultural exchange program. Ben and Tina were devoted parents to one daughter, Adrienne Alexis, who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Ben is preceded in death by his wife, Tina, and his parents, Ben and Ruth Donath. He is survived by his daughter, Alexis, of St. Paul, Minnesota; his brother, Michael Stephen Donath (Connie) of Lincoln, Illinois; and his sister, Karen Sue Donath, of Normal, Illinois.

Ben has bequeathed his body to medical education at Des Moines University. A visitation will be held on Friday, June 1, 2018, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Sliefert Funeral Home in Storm Lake followed by a short service at 7:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Benjamin Donath Mathematics Student Enrichment Fund at BVU.

Sliefert Funeral Homes, Storm Lake, Iowa, 2018.

Buena Vista Obituaries maintained by Lynn Diemer-Mathews.
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