Sag Harbor Express

Donald William Mole, Formerly of Sag Harbor, Dies September 16

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Donald William Mole

Donald William Mole

authorStaff Writer on Sep 25, 2023

Donald William Mole of Indian Land, South Carolina, and formerly of Sag Harbor, died peacefully at home on September 16. He was 96.

He was born on February 23, 1927, in Rochester, New York, the son of James William “Bill” Mole and Winnifred “Min” Churchfield Mole.

He had two big passions in life: tennis, which he learned in high school where he was on the Charlotte High School tennis team; and piping, which he took up after leaving the U.S. Army in the late 1940s. He was pipe major of the Rochester Clan MacNaughton Pipe Band from the 1950s to the early 1960s, and taught the TJ Connor Pipe Band in Scottsville, New York, for many years in the 1960s and 1970s.

He co-founded Aldon Chemicals in Avon, New York, in the early 1960s, and retired from it in the early 1990s. He and his second wife, Shirley, moved to Sag Harbor in 1997, then to Indian Land, in 2012. Shirley predeceased him in March 2020.

He is survived by three children from his first marriage to Joyce Morrison Mole, Ellen (Alan Rosenthal) of Toronto, Carol McKee (Steve) of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Bruce (Emily) of Whittier, California; and four grandchildren, Lindsey McKee (Calvin Chung), Neil McGillivray, David McKee and Annie McGillivray.

At his request, he is being cremated and his ashes will be scattered in a private family ceremony.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that he is remembered fondly and that survivors enjoy a tennis match or a bagpipe tune or two.

Lancaster Funeral Home in Lancaster, South Carolina, is providing services.

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