A. Donald "Don" Drennan

Don Drennan, longtime Abilene Christian University administrator, Abilene City Council member and community servant, died Feb. 3, in Abilene, after an extended illness.  He was 85.

Services honoring his life are planned Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Beauchamp Amphitheatre on the Abilene Christian University campus.  A visitation with family will be Saturday from 5-7 p.m. at Piersall Funeral Directors, 733 Butternut. The family requests that guests wear masks and observe social distancing out of respect for others in attendance.

Born Altie Donald Drennan on Oct. 10, 1935, to A.O. and Grace Hunt Drennan, he was known as Don to his many friends, but always Donald to his mother and his wife, Rudith.  He loved telling people he was born at West Texas Baptist Sanitarium, the precursor to Hendrick Medical Center.

A 1954 graduate of Abilene High School, he was a member of the last class to attend school on the original North First Street campus.  After earning his bachelor’s degree from ACU in 1958, he worked briefly in Midland for Shell Oil Co. before returning in 1960 as purchasing director at the university.

Drennan’s service to ACU and to Abilene was broad and deep, always focused on what he thought was right and treating everyone the same regardless of title.

He became the university business manager in 1969, and completed a master’s degree while working fulltime.  In 1972 he became assistant to the president for Dr. John C. Stevens, forging a friendship that defined his role there. Beginning in 1982 he served six years as associate professor of accounting. Even after becoming athletic director in 1988, he continued to teach one freshman introductory business class each semester.

A January blind date arranged by Dusty and Nancy Rhodes, with an El Paso school teacher, Rudith Frazier, led to their wedding, Aug. 5, 1977. The couple bought the Rafter T Ranch in Chimney Rock, Colo., in 1982 and spent summers and holidays there with their children, eventually moving there for two years after Drennan’s first retirement in 1990.

Though he loved bailing hay, the horses and Longhorn cattle on the ranch, Drennan missed teaching and so they returned to ACU where he told a student reporter for The Optimist, “I teach for fun.  I’ll only accept $1 as payment for each class I teach.”

In 2000 he retired again to spend more time in support of numerous Christian organizations he and Rudith encouraged through the Frazier Foundation, which he served as treasurer.  He was an ACU trustee from 1991-2010, including several years as board secretary.

In Abilene, Drennan was active with the Abilene Chamber of Commerce.  He served on boards of directors for United Way, Abilene Christian Schools, Red Cross, Abilene Higher Education Authority, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Disability Resources, Inc. and as a longtime member of Abilene Rotary Club.

As a City Council member from 1994-97, Drennan focused, as always, on what people needed.  When the council considered discontinuing city bus service, he went and rode the busses himself and concluded they could not be closed because he saw the people who needed them to get to work. When the proposal was debated, he asked another council member who advocated for the closures, “When was the last time you rode a bus?”

After his retirement from ACU in 2000, Don looked for ways to leave the world a better place, so he and Rudith spent several school years in Parkersburg, W.Va., home of Ohio Valley College, a tiny Christian college serving Appalachia. There he taught accounting and administered a grant for construction of a new science building that was named in his honor. They returned to Abilene in 2007 where he remained active with the Frazier Foundation, and at Highland Church of Christ where he has been a deacon, chair of the missions committee and an adult Bible class teacher.

He is survived by his wife Rudith, and by four children:  James Donald Drennan and his wife Shelley of Abilene; D’Ann McAlister and her husband Stuart of Franklin; Daniel Drennan and his wife Amber of Abilene; and April Drennan and her husband Beau Minkler of Colorado Springs.  He is also survived by his sister Deanna Baker of Lubbock, by nine grandchildren and two great grandchildren: Cody, Garrett and Dakota Drennan, Cameron and Evan McAlister, Kendrick and Sage Drennan,  Gage Jones and Nora Mitchen, and great grandchildren Adler and Alice Drennan.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests those wishing to honor Don’s life do so through memorials to the A. Don Drennan Business Endowed Scholarship (ACU Box 29132, Abilene, Texas 79699-9132, bit.ly/ADonDrennan )