ForeverMissed
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Mzima Springs photographer

This memorial website was created in memory of our father, Donald Capone.  He was born July 9, 1933 and passed away, in the country he loved so much, on December 20, 2013. We will hold him in our hearts always.

Hearing from those that knew dad and hearing their stories & remembrances has brought us much comfort and many smiles. We would welcome your stories, comments, and memories of our dad (& photos), they warm our hearts.  

Thanks so much for your kind thoughts, prayers, and support and for the many ways you touched his life.

Teresa, Mike, Steve, and MaryAnn 

Tributes

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Mike Capone
December 20, 2018
December 20, 2018
Its been a long 5 years without Dad. Many changes including a wonderfull wife of 2 years and a super cool little dude "Nino" ,our beloved son has come along to show me, and us, the wonderfull, and fairly challenging role of Father and Parenthood first hand. I hope that I will be able to be a great Dad like Don was and I surely will strive to live up to the standards and examples hes set to have an adventurous and learned and cultured life and to simply sit back and enjoy the natural beauty of nature when it is present.
Teresa Capone Cook
December 20, 2018
December 20, 2018
Somehow I got half way through this day before recognizing this as the day Dad left Earth for his eternal safari....here I sit in my office at school, a teacher, sharing Africa stories with my students today and I am thankful for the love of learning, love of Africa (Kenya in particular), love of science & geography, of the education profession that my Dad encouraged and modeled for me. He'd be so proud of his grandchildren with their inquisitive natures - even little Nino - their love of and work in the arts, nature, field research, dance - and of course that they are wonderful human beings! Today I miss his laugh, his twinkling eyes, his cooking wonderful items for us, his encouragement, and his sharp wit and good humor, his letters, and the many ways he taught us about the world. Love you dad.
Teresa Capone Cook
July 9, 2018
July 9, 2018
Today would have been your 85th birthday dad. You have a grandson you never met. Africa continues to call to us - Nicole will spend a semester there and your grandson, Nino is a son of Africa. Thinking of you, as always, especially in the dewy mornings with doves serenading me as I sip my Kenyan tea.
Teresa Capone Cook
July 9, 2015
July 9, 2015
July 9, 2015 My dad's birthday. I dreamed about him last night, on his way to some exotic locale and I was missing him. Just posted two pictures I came across of dad with his granddaughters. Smiling and enjoying life. Many times over the past two years I have had that moment of, "Oh I can't wait to tell dad about this, or ask dad what he thinks about this..." Love you dad.
Keith McIntyre
December 29, 2013
December 29, 2013
Farewell Don old friend –

Since 1968 when I first flew you around Tsavo parks doing early surveys of squatters & charcoal-burners within the parks, as your early geographical research work –

Our families were young, with daughters Teresa & Hazel, being passed over the the fence of our neighbouring houses to play – so many safaris over the years – many based at our Nairobi house when you came over from the US and went off in 'the green machine' – an ancient and breakdown prone Toyota...memorable Xmas with you at Samburu in the 'Hilton' tent & we flew up with the Xmas only partially cooked by Stan & you made a 3 stone cooking fire...
Here is Angela with Mom Maryann & Don in 1969 at Bushwackers camp near Kibwezi – when we were all young - you can't see it, but under Don's shirt he bears the imprint of Angela's sandal! - on the track into Bushwackers a tsetse fly came into the vehicle landed on his back – Angela had enthusiastically taken up Maryann's habit of zapping anything buglike that appeared, so ZAP with her sandal...

Over the years the African magic brought you more & more frequently to Kenya, where you led a charmed life & eventually retired to the Mombasa coast, from where you will make a last 'safari' to your favourite Tsavo lodge –

safari salama bwana – quaheri ya kuonana...

R.I.P 

Happy memories go with you
love Keith , Angela & Hazel
******************************************
Mary Ann Capone
December 29, 2013
December 29, 2013
An Offering

I give for us my pain to know the truth
and all my tears to make us one
for I know that once from death
a flood of tears washed off the mask
and there was love
D.L.C.
Mary Ann Capone
December 29, 2013
December 29, 2013
....for life's not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis


"since feeling is first" e.e. cummings
Teresa Capone Cook
December 25, 2013
December 25, 2013
Just some random thoughts as I begin to put into words what my dad meant to me and all the gifts he gave us...

We always teased my dad that he should write a book about his time in Africa from the perspective of all the various car troubles, breakdowns, repair shops, and adventures related to his vehicle. It seems perhaps fitting that he should end his time on Earth while waiting for his car to be fixed. Many of our most exciting adventures transpired with some car trouble as a major character in the story...crossing the desert with a faulty radiator, driving through fire in the Chyulu Hills, narrowly escaping a charging elephant with a car that could stall at any moment...We love you daddy - thanks for all the adventures, the incredible gourmet meals, the taste for pickles and peanut butter sandwiches, our love of nature and Kenya, for your support of our education and professions, the letters and emails and phone calls even though you were far away, for your infectious laugh, and for your generous heart.

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Recent Tributes
Mike Capone
December 20, 2018
December 20, 2018
Its been a long 5 years without Dad. Many changes including a wonderfull wife of 2 years and a super cool little dude "Nino" ,our beloved son has come along to show me, and us, the wonderfull, and fairly challenging role of Father and Parenthood first hand. I hope that I will be able to be a great Dad like Don was and I surely will strive to live up to the standards and examples hes set to have an adventurous and learned and cultured life and to simply sit back and enjoy the natural beauty of nature when it is present.
Teresa Capone Cook
December 20, 2018
December 20, 2018
Somehow I got half way through this day before recognizing this as the day Dad left Earth for his eternal safari....here I sit in my office at school, a teacher, sharing Africa stories with my students today and I am thankful for the love of learning, love of Africa (Kenya in particular), love of science & geography, of the education profession that my Dad encouraged and modeled for me. He'd be so proud of his grandchildren with their inquisitive natures - even little Nino - their love of and work in the arts, nature, field research, dance - and of course that they are wonderful human beings! Today I miss his laugh, his twinkling eyes, his cooking wonderful items for us, his encouragement, and his sharp wit and good humor, his letters, and the many ways he taught us about the world. Love you dad.
Teresa Capone Cook
July 9, 2018
July 9, 2018
Today would have been your 85th birthday dad. You have a grandson you never met. Africa continues to call to us - Nicole will spend a semester there and your grandson, Nino is a son of Africa. Thinking of you, as always, especially in the dewy mornings with doves serenading me as I sip my Kenyan tea.
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kitani porch
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kitani
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Recent stories

A Matter of Perspective by Donald L. Capone

January 4, 2014
by Teresa Capone Cook

When dragonflies see us
through compound eyes
do we shimmer in the light?
Are we filled with grace
with beauty and delight?
Does our aspect bring them joy?
Do they gaze with wonder at our sight?
Do dragonflies at night
sing songs of us
before they sleep?
Do they dream of beauty and of light?
Are we also objects of delight
or just
     too big to eat
                 and so
                          irrelevant? 

Kilaguni - in dad's words

January 4, 2014
by Teresa Capone Cook

Dad always told us he hoped his ashes could be spread near his favorite safari spot in Tsavo – I just came across an email from 2007 where he talks about this spot: "Well, here I am again, sitting at what is probably my favorite place in all the world — at least my favorite spot in Kenya.  This is where it all began — so long ago — in 1966 when I first walked through the lodge entrance and out on the veranda to see what is still one of the most stunning sights in all of Africa — the Kilaguni waterhole.  Just on the right, as you look out over the waterhole are the rounded peaks and dimpled craters of the Chyulu Hills displaying a wonderful range of color — looking as if they might have been painted with a pastel pallet.  And then just a bit to the left, rising up from the plain is Kilimanjaro, huge and perfect, just like all the pictures you have ever seen of Africa's most famous mountain.  And then, there's the waterhole — always busy with the most wonderful variety of wildlife.  Just now it is a bit slow but there is an impala buck drinking and a warthog family is just leaving along with the remnants of a troop of baboons.  And completing the picture are three giraffe ambling slowly across the scene.  Off in the distance at the edge of the clearing is a small herd of zebra and soon there will be others…probably elephant and maybe buffalo in herds of hundreds.  I have seen and heard lions roaring as they lay near the water, and was lucky enough, once, to have a leopard casually stroll across right in front of the veranda at dinnertime.  Kilaguni was the first game lodge built in any of Kenya's national parks in 1962 and it is still the best — the most special place — I hope it will always be here.  It has survived two fires — I survived the second one along with it…That first visit to Tsavo in 1966 certainly changed my life — and I guess that of everyone else I infected with my passion for Kenya, what the French during colonial times called the "mal d'Afrique", a most serious and apparently incurable obsession with the dark continent.  Anyone who is unable to understand that ailment has only to see this magical place and they will know."

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