Portage County obituaries for May 8-10, 2026

August 29, 1933 – November 26, 2025

Donald Philip Eckert, age 92, of Lakeside, and formerly of Kent, Ohio, passed away peacefully in his sleep, in the morning of Wednesday, November 26, 2025, at Mary Martha Assisted Living. He was born in Akron, Ohio, to Albert and Mary Eckert and raised in Tallmadge, Ohio, graduating from Tallmadge High School in 1951. He attended Kent State University from 1951 to 1955, working his way through college doing line repair (a.k.a. a “gandy dancer”) for the Nickel Plate Railroad, and hitch-hiking his way to and from college between Tallmadge and Kent. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music education and later a master’s degree in music theory, both at KSU. He married his college sweetheart, Frances M. (Lofgren) Eckert, on June 16, 1956. They enjoyed 66 years of wedded bliss, often enjoying a nice dinner out on Friday nights, followed by dancing the jitterbug at clubs all over town, thanks to the dancing lessons he took as a teenager (which he signed up for “so he’d always have a date”).