Donald C. "Don" Byers
Marriages
Nancy Rue Byers
Burial Details
Obituaries
Eagle Valley Enterprise - January 4, 1996
Donald C. BYERS died Jan. 1 at his Vail home. He was 56.
Mr. BYERS, a local real estate broker and developer, was born Mary 15, 1939 in Grinnell, Ia., to Carroll and Frances (Gillis) BYERS. He loved all outdoor sports, including fly fishing, skiing, windsurfing, golf and mountain biking.
He is survived by his wife, Nancy BYERS of Vail; daughters Amy Byers HOLM and husband Claes HOLM of Vail, and Martha Byers CARSON and husband Dr. Rob CARSON of Denver; three grandchildren, Joshua, Mitchell and Paige CARSON; sister Ann BERG of Marshalltown, Ia.; and brother Dave BYERS of Las Vegas, Nev.
Memorial services will be held Friday, Jan. 5 at 11 a.m. at the Vail Interfaith Chapel. The Rev. Bruce MONCRIEF will officiate, and a reception will follow at the Eagle Springs Golf Club in Wolcott. Memorial contributions may be made to the Henry's Fork Foundation, P.O. Box 61, Island Park, ID 83429.
Funeral arrangements were by Bailey Funeral Home in Leadville.
Vail Daily page 8 - January 4, 1996
Don Byers has moved on to a more important mission, by Warren Miler.
In my lifetime, I have been witness to death's call many times. So far as I know, no one has given him my number. Fortunately for me, he has always called at a nearby address, sometimes howling up in the predawn darkness without so much as a whisper or a by your leave. Other times he has come screaming, screeching and howling as nearby flesh has been torn by ruptured metal.
It is one of life's fortunate facts that we are given no inside information on when, where or how he will greet us individually.
Forty-some years ago, I sat in a doctor's office with my 6-month-old son and listened in disbelief as he said, "Warren, your wife is going to die in six or eight months and there isn't a person in the world who can save her life. She has malignant cancer of the spine."
He was wrong. She lived 10 months.
But in dealing with the inevitability of her death, I searched desperately for the age-old answer to the question, "Why her? Why not that homeless drunk? That wife beater? That child molester?" Why?
About two years ago, my next-door neighbor, Don Byers, was diagnosed with the big "C." A young man, 56 years old, in apparent good health: a skier, windsurfer, golfer, world-class fisherman, and an all-around all-American father.
Why him? Somewhere there is an answer to that question.
Here's my answer.
When I was confronted with my young wife's eminent death, I found some answers that worked for me. I found them while sitting on the beach and watching the waves come in toward the beach, only to rise up at the last moment and crash on the shore. The waves had been doing that for untold millions of years and would continue to do the same thing for millions more. In 100 years the world would be full of all new people. Yes, I knew that even my 6-month-old-son would be gone.
I'm not a church-going religious person, so I can't visualized God in his conventional human form. For me, the term "higher power" kind of fits.
But if you see your own individual god as someone who sees all and knows all, that might have been on OK premise when the world's population was small and he (or she, or your own special form of god) could have kept track of everyone and everything.
However as the world's population grew he needed more and better help in keeping track of everyone in the world so it would be a safe place to live. A gradual shift in him getting good help had to occur. So instead of just taking the old and sick, the weak and the lame, he occasionally reaches out and takes a very special person, the best person available at the time of his need. He needs that person more than his or her wife or husband or children or anyone else left behind needs him.
1996 was only two hours and 15 minutes old when Don Byers was taken away from all of us. He now has a much more important job. No one knows what it is yet but he will. He was needed more where he now is than by his daughters, Martha and Amy, his wife, Nancy, and his three grandchildren.
It's only been a couple of days now and the guy who always made first tracks with me is making them somewhere else with a small group of movers and shakers. Don will get them organized and pick which lifts to ride, which slopes to carve up, where to eat lunch and what to order.
He will also probably be on the selection committee for new members in their club.
Don, you sure screwed up my life. It was you who talked me into moving to Vail and building a house, you who opened your Maui condominium to me and screwed up my summer with windsurfing. Now you run off to ski in untracked powder snow somewhere and leave the rest of us behind to solve the capital-gains tax problem, Bosnia, Category III and other suddenly very unimportant questions.
We all miss you.
BYERS SERVICES:
Memorial services for Don Byers will be at 11 a.m. Friday, Jan. 5, at the Vail Interfaith Chapel. Fr. Bruce Moncrief will officiate. A reception will follow at the Eagle Springs Golf Club in Wolcott.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Henry's Fork Foundation, PO Box 61, Island Park, Idaho 83429. Arrangements were handled by Bailey Funeral Home in Leadville.
