Donald Keith Sinclair

Memorial services for the Rev. Donald Keith Sinclair, 92, Lawrence, will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Dengel & Son Mortuary in Ottawa. Inurnment will be in Highland Cemetery in Ottawa.The Rev. Sinclair died Friday, Oct. 10, 2008, at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.He was born Aug. 30, 1916, in St. Francis, Maine, to John Roy and Delia Savage Sinclair. He graduated from Gordon College in Boston and Yale Divinity School in 1944. He moved to Lawrence in April 2006.The Rev. Sinclair served in the U.S. Navy as a chaplain during World War II and the Korean war. He retired with the rank of lieutenant commander.He worked during his youth in his family’s potato and logging operations on the Canadian border.The Rev. Sinclair was ordained as a minister in the Congregational Church and was a member of Plymouth Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, in Lawrence. He served parishes in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Minnesota, Ohio and Iowa. He was named minister emeritus at First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, in Sioux City after 15 years as minister there.He participated in statewide and national leadership activities of the Congregational Church as it grew to become the United Church of Christ. He was involved in many community activities and was a leader in ecumenicism, civil rights and nonprofit organizations.The Rev. Sinclair retired to Ottawa and continued to hold interim pastorates and assist at nearby churches including St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Eudora, St. John’s United Church of Christ, Worden, Church of the Pilgrimage and as chaplain at Presbyterian Manor in Lawrence.The Rev. Sinclair enjoyed Kansas University basketball, gardening, children, his dogs, his wife’s cooking and gatherings of family and friends.He married Margaret Schroeder in 1941. They shared 63 years of marriage. She died May 24, 2005.The Rev. Sinclair was also preceded in death by eight siblings and a granddaughter.Survivors include two daughters, Patricia Sinclair, Lawrence, and Margaret Ann Sinclair; four grandchildren; and a great-grandson.The family will receive friends from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the mortuary before the services.The family suggests contributions to Plymouth Congregational Church, UCC, for their seminary fund to assist ministerial students, sent in care of the mortuary, 235 S. Hickory St., Ottawa, KS 66067.