- Date Of Birth: January 9, 1930
- Date Of Death: December 18, 2011
- State: Indiana
Donald K. Queener, 81, of Goshen, and fondly remembered as “The Voice of Concord,” passed away at 9:15 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011, at the Center for Hospice Care Residence in Elkhart following an extended battle with Alzheimer’s Disease.
Don was born to an Appalachian coal mining family Jan. 9, 1930, in Harlan, Ky., to the late Jordan G. and Mary (Braden) Queener, and was the next to the last surviving member of 11 brothers and sisters.
On Aug. 16, 1962, Don married Jimmie Sue Woods Ward and took up residency in Goshen, where he began teaching speech and theatre for the next 42 years and was beloved by the many students who survive him.
Also surviving are his sons, Mark (Carolyn) Queener of Union, Mich., Matt (Toni) Queener of Elkhart and Jim (Kathy) Ward of West Lafayette; his daughter, Randi Ward (John) Mochamer of Elkhart; a sister, Lucinda (Lyle) Mayer of Elkhart; 10 grandchildren, Joseph, Thomas, Jared, Kailee and Baylie Queener, Maggie and Jason Ward, Amy Sinclair and Andrew King and Jacob Mochamer; and one great-granddaughter, Kallie Schmidt.
Preceding Don in death were his siblings Irene, Jesse, Robert, Arnold, Thelma, Florence, Edith, Ulysses and Hurstle, as well as a grandson, Johnathon Mochamer.
Don served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War and then went on to receive his bachelor’s degree from Murray State University in 1957 and his master’s degree from Indiana University in 1967. He taught in Elkhart, Peru and at North Central High School in Indianapolis before he settled in at Concord, where he taught from 1962 to 1966 and from 1967 to 1995 and led a world-class speech team there. Following his retirement, he sat on the Concord Trustee’s School Board from 2004 to 2006.
From the beginning of Don’s career, he was deeply involved with the National Forensic League, or NFL, which governed high school speech teams nationally. He coached and accompanied speech teams all over Indiana and the nation during competitions.
Competing students are awarded points by the NFL, and the coach receives a tenth of a point for every student point awarded as well. Any coach receiving 3,000 points receives a Diamond achievement award, and Don received three such awards in 1968, 1975 and in 1983, making him one of the top 10 speech coaches in the United States and reserving him a place in the Indiana High School Forensic Association Hall of Fame. To put his coaching accomplishments into perspective, Don’s 9,046 career points were a result of the accumulation of more than 90,000 student points, and 4,500 of those students earning first place during their respective competitions.
Don was also very active with the arts in each of the schools where he taught and was responsible for organizing the fall plays and spring musicals. A number of his students are actively pursuing a professional acting career both in Hollywood and on Broadway, while many, many more are involved in art production and teaching.
