Donald Wayne Cummings Obituary (2025)

On October 9, 2025, Donald Cummings passed away, surrounded by his loving family. He was born in Seattle on May 21, 1935, to Mildred (Thayer) and Oliver Cummings. He died due to any one or two or more of the many things that had gone haywire inside his body. During his early years, Don lived a somewhat nomadic existence, moving around Seattle, Issaquah, Delaware, Virginia, New Hampshire, Florida, then after WWII full circle back to Woodinville, Kirkland, Bothell, Seattle and finally Ellensburg. The University of Washington, from which he received all three of his degrees in English literature, was his thirteenth school. He went to work at his fourteenth school, Central Washington University, in 1960, where he served for 36 years as an Instructor, Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor of English, director of the Academic Skills Center, chairman of the English Department and Dean of the College of Letters, Art and Sciences. In 1996 he retired as Emeritus Professor of English. During the early winter of 1953--at a dance of course--he met 15-year-old Carol Feuling--the girl/woman who was to complete him, become his soulmate, wife, mother of his children (Dan, Lon, Jody and later Jen), grandmother of his grandchildren (Josh, Haley, Carly and Jaden), and great-grandmother of his great-grandchildren (Hannah, Adex and Ronan). In the early 1970s, he and John Herum published two books-- Writing: Plans, Drafts and Revisions (a rhetoric from Random House) and Tempo: Life, Work and Leisure (a reader from Houghton, Mifflin). They were wonderful textbooks, their only problem being that practically nobody wanted to teach out of them. In 1984 Don was selected as Central Washington's Distinguished University Professor for Teaching. In 1988 Johns Hopkins University Press published his American English Spelling - An Informal Description, a thick reference book that astonishingly is still in print and still bringing in royalties, in the most recent year $31.27. In 2016, a sizeable essay of his on the co-evolution of British and America spelling was published as part of the Routledge Handbook of the English Writing System. After his retirement from Central, he set up the website www.dwcummings.com for students and teachers of English spelling, reading and writing. He also worked as a consultant for Leapfrog Enterprises, He spent his golden years at the beloved family home on Hannah Road, golfing, reading, watching sports and dispensing wisdom and wisecracks to loved ones as needed. His Celebration of Life will be Nov. 21, 2025, from 5:00 pm-7:00 pm, at the Hal Holmes Center, 209 N. Ruby St (inside the library) Ellensburg, WA.