Michael Sheehan was 24 years old when Anna Stancik captured his heart in Chicago in 1930. He had never set foot in high school, and she had completed only a two year high school program, yet their love for each other and faith that God would bless them led them to marry and raise three sons. Don was the first born (8 October 1931), followed by brothers Ronald and Norman. Mike and Ann wanted a better life for their sons, so they encouraged them to study diligently to achieve the American dream. Don read Kendall Banning’s West Point Today in high school and set his mind, heart, and soul on studying there, and pursuing a military career.
Determined study allowed Don to achieve good high shool grades. He received a congressional appointment to West Point in 1950, but was gerrymandered out of his congressman’s district. The next year he received a second appointment, but a malocclusion prevented him from passing the dental exam. He wore braces for a year (at age 20), and passed the dental exam the next year. He reported to West Point in July, 1952 to begin his quest for a career in our nation’s military service. Don literally fell head over heals in love at first sight with a lovely lady from Chicago he met at the Thayer hotel in 1954. As he started up the marble steps of the Thayer, he saw her sitting on a couch in the foyer. Her beauty so startled him that he tripped on the stairs, sprawling forward and losing the keys and his cadet cap. She demourly looked away to spare him embarrasment. They celebrated Mass together at Holy Trinity chapel the next morning. Don dated DORRIE SIDENER during summer and Christmas leaves for the next four years, and learned that she had been a Hollywood actress, a coloratura soprano with the Greek Theater in California, and one of Chicago’s premier fashion and photographer’s models. On his graduation day in 1956, DORRIE, along with Don’s Mother, pinned his Second Lieutentant’s bars on his Air Force uniform, and married him on 31 May, 1958 (the fourth anniversary of their West Point meeting). Seventy-seven days into their marriage, Don was assigned to Korea to fly tactical reconnaisance. DORRIE joined him a year later for a two year second honeymoon in Japan.
DORRIE gave birth to two beautiful girls (Stacy and Gigi) in Japan and to Chrissy in Illinois during Don’s graduate studies. During a four year assignment at the Air Foprce Asademy DORRIE brought Mia, Mike, and Matt into the Sheehan family. With the war in Vietnam expanding, Don trained in C-130 aircraft to fly tactical airlift missions in Vietnam. DORRIE and the children accompanied him to Clark AFB in the Phillippines. After two years in Asia, the Sheehans returned for a second tour of duty at the Air Force Academy. DORRIE brought Adam into the family in 1970. In 1973, the family reported to Alaska, where Don was the Operations Officer in a ski-equipped C-130 squadron that supplied the DEW sites there and in Greenland.
Don’s last assignment was as the Commander of the AFROTC Detachment at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. During that three year tour of duty their children attended Massachusetts schools, and made lifetime friends. Rather than take seven children out of their schools and away from their friends, Don retired in 1979, and began work in high tech with Digital Equipment Corportation. Thirteen years later, Don retired from Digital, and became the Executive Director of MVOTEC, an educational and technical collaborative.
DORRIE and Don enjoyed living in New England, and traveling extensively on Catholic pilgrimages, and romantic trips to Europe. The God Who brought them together blessed them with 55 years of a romantic marriage that allowed them to inspire their children to love and serve Him. Their beloved children graduated from college, pursued careers, met and married the loves of their lives, and raised sixteen grand children. No man whoever lived was as blessed as Don to have shared life with DORRIE, to have had the privilege of being the father of her chldren, and to have “slipped the surly bonds of earth, and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings.” During his military career he accumulated over 5,500 flying hours, was a member of the Knights of Columbus, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Order of Daedalians, and the West Point Association of Graduates. He was awarded the Air Force Commendation medal, the Meritorious Service medal (with two Oak Leaf cllusters), the Air Medal (with eight Oak Leaf clusters), and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
On Thursday, December 19, 2013, God called Don home. He will be waked at the foot of the Altar at Saint Robert Bellarmine Catholic Church, 198 Haggetts Pond Road, Andover, from 4 PM until 8 PM on Friday, December 27th, and buried in Saint Mary’s Cemetery in Tewksbury after the 10 a.m. Funeral Mass on Saturday, December 28th, at St. Robert Bellarmine Church. In lieu of flowers, contributions to Wounded Warrior Project would be gratefully appreciated.
Please visit Don's Memorial site at West Point: https://apps.westpointaog.org/Memorials/Article/20919