Donald "Don" E. Kerstetter

Donald E. “Pap” Kerstetter, of Elizabethtown, an Army veteran, steelworker, and outdoorsman who spent his life taking care of other people, died on October 3, 2026, in Elizabethtown, PA. He was 82.

He was born on May 23, 1944, in Mechanicsburg, PA, a son of the late Alfred and Jean (Pentz) Kerstetter. His father was an Army Ranger who fought in North Africa and Europe in World War II, and Don learned young what it meant to carry a family.

He served in the United States Army from 1966 to 1969, rising to the rank of sergeant. He was stationed in West Berlin with Company A, 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry as a marksman, of the Berlin Brigade, where he stood guard at Checkpoint Charlie, and over Nazi prisoners, the crossing point between East and West at the height of the Cold War. It was in Berlin that he met Doris, the woman he would spend the rest of his life with. She was about seventeen. They were married for 60 years.

When he married Doris, he also chose to become a father to her daughter, Heike, who was two years old. He raised her as his own from that day on. Their son, Tom, was born in Germany shortly before the family moved to the United States. Don brought his young family over with almost nothing and built a life for them here. Their third child, Dennis, was born in the United States.

He worked for 35 years at Bethlehem Steel, where he was in the rail finishing department. When they company went bankrupt after his retirement, when his pension was cut, he went back to work.

Don loved to be outside. He hunted, golfed, fished, and ran a boat on the Susquehanna River. He poured his own lead sinkers and made his own lures, and he taught his grandchildren to do the same.

Around 2004, he suffered a major stroke. Doctors gave him days. He lived for about twenty-two more years, cared for at home by his wife, who never left his side. He also lived with mesothelioma and thyroid cancer, which he got from his Army service and his career in the steel mill.

He is survived by his wife, Doris; three children, Heike, Tom, and Denis; five grandchildren, Chad, John, Ella, Ally, and Dalton; two great-grandchildren, Hannah and Kylie; three brothers, Robert, Gary, and Brian; and his dog, King. In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by his brother Scott, and his beloved dog, Angel.

Services will be private at the convenience of the family.