Donald Sweigart, 94 of Concordville died on October 12, 2024.  Born in Village Green, he was the son of the late H. Kurtz and Helen E. McCafferty Sweigart. Don was one of 8 children and lived on Concord Road (Concordville and Village Green), most of his life.

His love of cars began at the age of 14, in 1943.  His father, Kurtz, owned an automobile repair shop, called the Village Garage. Whenever there was a car to be towed, the State Police would call Kurtz to remove it.  One day, he was called to pick up a 1934 Chevrolet Roadster, which had been abandoned.  This car belonged to a soldier who had been drafted into World War II. It was abandoned because it had 2 flat tires and was not running. He had to report to the draft that day and did not have the time or the tires to fix it.  The soldier was trying to get it to the junkyard before going into the war.  After it was towed back to Kurtz's house on the farm, the car was left in the barnyard for many months.

When Donald was 15 years old, he asked his father, "What do you do to make a car run?"  His father told him that it required carburation, ignition and compression.  This car had a crank which is used to hand-start a car.  Don found an old battery, put it in the car and tried to crank it.  The engine would not turn over. He asked his father more questions on how to get a car engine started.  He tinkered some more with the engine, and every day after school he would try to crank it again.  Finally, one day the engine backfired and he knew that the car could start.  Since the gas tank had holes in it, he took a 2-gallon motor oil can and made it into a gas tank. He began driving it through the fields on their farm.

The door was missing on the driver's side, but Don found an old AAA Auto Club sign, and it barely fit the opening.  He bolted it permanently to the car.  He bought a used battery in the junkyard for one dollar and replaced the old battery.  The car was now ready to run.  At the age of 16, Don received his driver's license. The car passed state inspection (really???), and he bought license plates and received a car title. This is just a little glimpse into the creativity and ingenuity of Don. He could, and did, fix anything and everything. There was nothing he could not repair.

He was honorably discharged from the Navy in 1953 and then married the love (and boss) of his life, Betty Galbraith, also known as Liz, in 1955.  They purchased two (2) acres from Styer's Nursery on Concord Road and they began a two year building process. Every free weekend, and when there was extra money from the paycheck, he would buy a few tons of stone or other supplies to build the 18" gray stone-wall rancher.  With the help of "Reds" Anemone (Italian stone mason) and many of his brothers and brothers-in-law, he built for us the most beautiful home he could dream of.

Don and Betty enjoyed many years there, raising their 3 children. He showed us the world and camped and traveled all over the country with us, teaching us how to fish and canoe and camp. We spent many a summer pulling the Prowler camper van to Myrtle Beach and back. He taught the boys everything they needed to know about cars, and he taught his daughter horticulture and landscaping.  He taught us all the life skills we needed to succeed.

During the 80's and after his retirement from DuPont, Don began restoring his two 1934 Fords and several Corvettes, many times with the assistance of both sons. He entered many car shows over the years and won several 1st place awards. He even won the Early Ford V-8 Club of America Dearborn award, a national prize, which was one of his proudest accomplishments.  Don and Liz were never cheated on adventure, traveling all over the world with her job at DuPont as the travel and social director.  Dad would walk across the golf courses every day at lunchtime to meet Mom at the DuPont Country Club, where she worked, for lunch. He seemingly always met someone along the way that needed their car repaired.  Most weekends we had someone's car being worked on in one of the 4 car garage stalls that he built.

After retirement he started up Lyzco, Inc. and worked side by side with Liz, purchasing, repairing, and reselling plastics extruders and large equipment he ran for years at the DuPont Experimental Station.

He was a real jokester with an easy-going personality.  He was always there to lend a helping hand. While in the Navy, he encountered a broken down limousine along the highway. He pulled over his jeep and stopped to fix the flat. When he was finished, the passenger exited the vehicle to thank him and shake his hand. That passenger was Ronald Reagan.

He loved his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren very much. He purchased a timeshare in Myrtle Beach in the 90's so we could all spend time together back at the beach we all loved so much. He loved doing puzzles, eating everything that mom baked, and having Pepsi and Tastykakes whenever he could sneak them. He will be forever missed by so many, too many to count.

Donald was a proud veteran of the US Navy and member of SeaBees having served during the Korean War.  He was employed as a Plastics Engineer at E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company for 34 years before retiring in 1992.  Donald was a member of St. Thomas the Apostle R.C. Church and the Knights of Columbus, Our Lady of the Rosary Council 3876.  He restored many antique cars and was also a member of County Corvette Association, the Early Ford V-8 Club of America and the National Corvette Restorers Society.

He was the loving husband of Elizabeth "Betty" "Liz" Galbraith Sweigart, father of Donald E. Sweigart, Maureen Sweigart Markward (Del) and John G. Sweigart (Jennifer), grandfather of Martha Thompson (Stephen), Del "Dutch" Markward Jr. and Cara Elizabeth Markward, great-grandfather of Llewyn and Jude Thompson, brother of George Sweigart and the late Francis "Buck" Sweigart, Dorothy Sweigart Koger, William Sweigart, Robert Sweigart, Paul Sweigart and Joan Sweigart Dugan.

Visitation 9:30 to 10:45  AM Wednesday, October 23, 2024 at St. Thomas the Apostle R.C. Church, 430 Valleybrook Rd., Glen Mills where a Funeral Mass will begin at 11 AM.  Burial will follow in the adjoining church cemetery.

Memorial gifts to the Alzheimer's Association ( https://act.alz.org/ ) would be appreciated.