Donald Leonard Capone was born in Brooklyn, NY on July 9, 1933, the oldest child of Vera and Leonard Capone.  He was big brother to his two sisters, Janet and Carol.  Dad spent his childhood in Queens and attended Brooklyn Technical High School.  He began his college studies at Middlebury College as a literature major and later transferred to Syracuse University to major in forestry.  While he enjoyed study of both literature and forestry he felt he had not yet discovered his calling.  He left college to find his passion.  After time in the Air Force as a pilot he enrolled at NYU evenings while working as a bartender in The Village to support his studies of literature and Russian history.  It was here, at NYU, that he at long last, in his final college course, discovered the field he would devote his life to -- geography.  He even named his first dog, Strabo, after the famous geographer.

It was during this time, daddy met our mother, MaryAnn Bellia, who was dating his best friend, Peter A. Benosky.  Pete would later be the best man at mom and dad's wedding.  Dad followed MaryAnn to Michigan State University, where one of the country's largest geography programs was located.   He finished up his NYU courses and graduated in 1962 while taking preliminary graduate courses at MSU.  Don and MaryAnn were married March 17, 1962 in Floral Park, Queens, New York at St. Gregory's Catholic Church.  

While at Michigan State dad met his mentor, professor, and dearest friend, Harm DeBlij.  It was Harm who first took daddy to sub-Saharan Africa, which was his area of specialty.  They travelled to Kenya together in 1963 and my dad was immediately awestruck with the place that would become in his heart, his forever home.

Harm recently recalled, "That first trip to East Africa almost exactly 50 years ago was a momentous one not only for him but for the whole family. I’ve often mentioned his intense reaction when he first saw Kilimanjaro, the plains and the rift, and how he vowed then and there to come back. That’s when I said, “why not write your dissertation on this area” and the rest, as they say, is geography."

July 21, 1964 Don and MaryAnn became parents!  Teresa Anne Capone came into the world in East Lansing Michigan.  Mom reports that Dad played Gin Rummy with her while she was in labor -- and he let her win!  Dad took care of infant Teresa when MaryAnn had to go back to the hospital for emergency gall bladder surgery just three weeks after her birth.  A special bond between them was formed during those early weeks.

In 1967 dad received a grant to study the effects of human population growth on rhino and elephant migration routes in Kenya. This work would form the basis of his doctoral dissertation, "Wildlife, Man and Competition for Land in Kenya: A Geographical Analysis".

July 1967 dad and his young family arrived in London, where he spent a month at the British Museum & Library preparing for the work in Kenya.  In August they finally arived in Kenya and moved into a rental in the Lavington suburb of Nairobi.  The door of their home was always open to fellow grad students, who often stayed there, and to his major advisor, Harm, who was a frequent visitor.  All enjoyed dad's wonderful cooking and we took many trips to the surrounding bush, including a long journey through Tanzania with Harm.  As for dad's cooking - it was to the never-ending amazement of neighboring African cooks who would gather at the kitchen door to watch the mzungu ("white man") head of house prepare the daily gourmet meals.

Lavington was also where we met our lifelong friends, Keith, Angela, and Hazel McIntyre who were our next door neighbors at the time.  Later, dad and family moved to a home "beneath the Ngong Hills", in the suburb of Karen, named after Karen Blixen, who wrote "Out of Africa".  How fitting that dad should have lived there, as her descriptive writing captured so much of how dad felt about Africa.

Dad spent the year flying, in a plane piloted by Keith McIntyre, over Tsavo National Park and nearby areas tracking elephants and rhinos and interviewing the local farmers who were encroaching on the National Park lands.  When dad was conducting interviews, mom and I would head out into the bush for 3-4 week stretches of time to accompany him.

Dad and family returned to Michigan in 1969.  Harm had joined the Geography Department at the University of Miami and asked dad to join him there.
Dad's first and only academic job was in Harm's department at the University of Miami.  Dad joined the department and began his teaching career while finishing up his dissertation.

Februrary 24, 1970 brought the excitement and blessing of twin sons, Michael Anthony and Stephen Leonard Capone.  They were born three months early and spent a month in intensive care.  Had they not been born in a hopspital that had cutting edge intensive preemie care they likely would not have survived.

Dad was awarded his doctorate in 1972, officially becoming Dr. Capone.  His dissertation work was well received in Kenya.  At one point the Kenyan ambassador called him and asked to meet and offer any Kenyan governmental assistance they could provide.  (Twenty-two years later, I followed in my dad's footsteps and became the second Dr. Capone in the family - although in Biology rather than Geography. Certainly my dad's work and our time in Kenya inspired me to pursue such a path) 

Over the years at UM dad's work would focus on East Africa, cartography, urban geography, and other topics.  He taught many courses including those on his favorite topics...cartography and East African geography.  

Dad would return to Kenya many times over the years, both to conduct & supervise research and to teach "field courses" to his students.  In 1979, the entire family spent six months on safari during his sabbatical.  These were special family times and there are many stories of our adventures together that we will recount on the stories pages of this website!

Life in Miami during these times included many elaborate dinner parties, where dad would spend hours to days preparing numerous Julia Child's recipes.  Weekends would often find the family at Crandon Park enjoying the beach or spending the day in the swimming pool.  Pancakes, sausage, hash browns and eggs would be our Sunday morning fare and nature programs like Wild Kingdom were often the Sunday evening family television time.  Game nights and the occasional slide show featuring our Africa slides were special evenings with family and friends.   Thanksgivings and some summer weeks were spent camping at Long Key in the Florida Keys, where dad's favorite spot was in the hammock strung between two trees.  On Christmas we would not get a tree unitl Christmas Eve, this was either following my dad's family tradition or perhaps as we suspected, a great way to get a highly discounted or even a free Christmas tree.  We would spend that night decorating the tree, listening to Christmas music, and baking before the kids would go to bed and mom and dad would stay up late putting together bicycles, dollhouses, and the like.  Sometimes we piled into our yellow station wagon and headed up north to visit the extended Capone and Bellia families.  One year we spent a memorable week on a houseboat in the Everglades.  Unfortunately this was also the week dad tried to quit smoking so things were a bit tense :)  (Dad was able to finally quit smoking many years later during his in hospital recouperation from an accident involving a collapsed hotel balcony at the Kenya Coast - the one positive from that little adventure).  Dad was a proud Dolphin season ticket holder, including the year they went undefeated.  Their seats were literally in the last row, way up high in the Orange Bowl.  UM football and baseball were also favorite sports events to attend. My dad was likely the most well-read and intelligent person I have ever known.  He passed his love of literature, classical music, fine food, science & nature, birdwatching, sports, and academic pursuits in general on to me and his grandchildren.

In 1981 Dad and Mom separated.  They remained good friends and were committed to making sure their separation would not adversely affect their children.  They developed a, unique for the time, custody arrangement so that the boys (Teresa was in college by this time) would never feel that one parent was a "stranger".  Mike and Steve would spend alternating weeks at mom's new house, which was deliberately within walking distance from dad's house, and dad's house.

My parents had the unique ability to encourage each other and be happy for each when they found new partners.  Dad was genuinely happy for mom when she remarried and he and mom's husband always got along famously.  In fact, MaryAnn was the one that suggested that dad date her boss, Jenny Coburn, who would eventually become dad's second wife.   Jenny shared his love of adventure, and was his intellectual equal - you'd never want to play against them at Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy.  They lived in a lovely condo in Jensen Beach on the St. Lucie river and especially enjoyed the bird life they could watch from their porch.  When they retired (both from the University of Miami) they moved to the Kenya coast.  Sadly, Jenny passed away in 2000, after they'd had only eight years together.

Dad became a grandfather in 1994 and again in 1997, with the birth of Teresa's daughters, Cara Marie and Nicole Anne Cook.  They knew him as "Grandpa Don" and he would delight them with tea parties, Africa stories, and in 2006 hosted them (and Teresa & Scott) on a three week safari.  He loved sharing Kenya with another generation.

Not long after Jenny's passing, in 2001 my brothers joined our dad in Kenya where they formed a company devoted to commercial videography. Dad spent these last 12 years in Diani Beach on the southern Kenya coast.  His days were filled with helping Mike and Steve with their business, planning and going on safaris, outfitting his ultimate safari vehicle, and generally completing his "bucket list". He meticulously read the NYT online every morning and watched a lot of CNN and NFL and college football - Go Dolphins and Hurricanes!  The improvements in the internet and cell phones meant that we no longer received long handwritten letters, but enjoyed the emails and frequent phone calls home.   In preparation for our famiy's trip to Kenya in 2006, "Grandpa Don" created a wonderful guidebook and Swahili lessonbook for his granddaughters entitled, "Grandpa Don's Most Excellent Exposition of Satisfactory Swahili for Young Ladies of Good Breeding".  He also sent wonderful "safari diaries" and we so enjoyed the few times we were able to Skype directly from the "bush".

His favorite safari spot over the years became Tsavo National Park, and he spent his 80th birthday there last summer with Mike and Steve.  It is in Tsavo, near Kilaguni lodge that dad wishes his ashes to be dispersed, forever to remain part of the Africa he loved.