Don Ingle was a guy you couldn’t help but like. He was fun. He was talented. He was an excellent outdoor writer and a cartoonist. And, he was a wonderful jazz musician. That was on top of his being a avid outdoorsman.
Don and his wife, Jean died in a fire that destroyed their home last week in Baldwin, Mich. According to a report by the Associated Press, the house was fully engulfed in flames when firemen arrived about 3 a.m.
He wrote for me on a regular basis when I was editor Hoosier Outdoors magazine. I couldn’t afford to pay him what his stories and cartoons were worth, but he wrote for me anyway. He was that kind of guy. We were friends.
We would see each other at outdoor writer conferences and swap tales, and nights usually would end of Don playing music and me drinking a few more “wea touches of the creature” as Jack Kerins used to say, referring to alcoholic beverages.
Don had lots of talent, stories, and was a fun guy. I just loved to be around him.
I remember long before GPS units became readily available, Don wrote a story about morel mushrooms (he loved to hunt them) and how a man was using a GPS to mark and then in the future locate his favorite morel spots in the forests of northern Michigan.
Don and I were separated by miles and I always intended to head up his way to hunt morels, but I never made it. Seems there are so many things I intend to do that don’t get done, and later I’m sorry.
Life is short and we never know what tomorrow will bring.
Don was always at the forefront of what was happening in the outdoors.
Don and Jean will be missed.
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