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Visitation:
A visitation will be held on Friday, June 1 from 5
p.m.-7 p.m. at Sliefert Funeral Home in Storm Lake,
IA, followed by a short service at 7 p.m.
Funeral home:
Sliefert Funeral Home
Obituary
Benjamin Boyd Donath died on Tuesday,
May 29 of pancreatic cancer. He was 68.
Born on August 31, 1949 in Lincoln, Illinois, Ben
was the son of Benjamin Carl Donath and Ruth Helen
(Jones) Donath. After graduating from Lincoln High
School, Ben attended Illinois College in
Jacksonville, IL. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in
mathematics and philosophy in 1971. Two weeks later,
he married his college sweetheart, fellow philosophy
major Tina (Johnson) Donath.
After their wedding, the Donaths moved to Oxford,
Ohio for graduate school at Miami University of
Ohio, where Ben earned masters’ degrees in
mathematics and statistics in 1973. He subsequently
completed four years of work toward a Ph.D. in
mathematics at the University of Iowa, before
accepting a faculty position at Buena Vista
University in Storm Lake, Iowa in the fall of 1977.
Ben would teach mathematics at Buena Vista
University for 41 years, until March 2018. His
passion for excellence was readily apparent in the
way he encouraged every one of his students to reach
their highest potential. Ben's greatest source of
professional joy was seeing his students meet and
exceed their own expectations.
In 2004, he received the George Wythe Award, BVU’s
highest honor for excellence in teaching. A student
who nominated him for this award noted that when Ben
helped students to master difficult concepts, rather
than “taking off in a Ferrari” and expecting
students to catch up on their bikes, “he would say
‘Follow me and I’ll show you the way,’ and he would
get on his own bike and ride with us the entire
journey.”
During his teaching career at BVU, Ben served as
Associate Dean of Faculty from 1992-1997, and as
Dean of the School of Science from 2006-2018. In
April 2018, he was inducted into BVU’s Order of
Cumberland and Tollefson for exceptional service to
the University.
While teaching was his life’s greatest calling, Ben
was also an avid reader and vegetable gardener. He
enjoyed playing the piano, especially in his youth
and young adulthood. Ben traveled to China twice in
the late 1980s as part of a cultural exchange
program. Ben and Tina were devoted parents to one
daughter, Adrienne Alexis, who lives in St. Paul,
Minnesota.
Ben is preceded in death by his wife, Tina, and his
parents, Ben and Ruth Donath. He is survived by his
daughter, Alexis, of St. Paul, MN; his brother,
Michael Stephen Donath (Connie) of Lincoln, IL; and
his sister, Karen Sue Donath, of Normal, IL.
Ben has bequeathed his body to medical education at
Des Moines University. A visitation will be held on
Friday, June 1 from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. at Sliefert
Funeral Home in Storm Lake, IA, followed by a short
service at 7 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may
be made to the Benjamin Donath Mathematics Student
Enrichment Fund at BVU.
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