Donald Ira Price
Donald Ira Price was born to Ira A. and Frankie G. Cable Price in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, at 13:13 military time on the median day (July 2) of 1947. These facts may, in part, explain his obsession with numbers from the time he could count. He passed away December 19, 2025.
Don graduated from high school in Searcy, Arkansas in 1965. Still fascinated by numbers, Don continued his education at Hendrix College, one of the nation’s most prestigious liberal arts colleges. He earned a B.A. in Business and Economics from Hendrix College in 1969. Don enlisted in the Navy shortly after graduation and served in Scotland and the Philippines. Upon his discharge, Don chased numbers at the University of Arkansas, where he earned an M.A. in Economics in 1975 and a Ph.D. in Economics in1980. While earning his Ph.D., Don taught at New Mexico Highlands University. But in 1981, Dr. Price was hired to teach economics at Lamar University. He remained at Lamar through a 40-year career that ended with his retirement in 2021. At Lamar, Dr. Price became a valuable and respected member of the college of Business and ultimately throughout the entire university. He earned a national reputation through his research in economics. After reaching full professor, he again chased numbers by serving as the director of Institutional Research at Lamar University. But missing teaching, Dr. Price returned to the classroom to retire as a teacher.
Dr. Price is survived by two first cousins and a circle of close friends, especially former colleagues and students. Of particular note is Nancy Thompson, the lady in his life during his later years. He is preceded in death by his parents and two first cousins.
Memorial contributions can be made to Lamar University College of Business in memory of Dr. Donald Price. Checks can be mailed to the Lamar University Foundation, P.O. Box 10011, Beaumont, Texas 77710.
Dr. Price’s arrangements are pending under the direction of Broussard’s, 1605 North Major Drive, Beaumont.
Dr. Price hired me in 2000 in the Institutional Research Department at Lamar University. Even after his retirement, I would see him from time to time, and he was always the same great leader—kind, supportive, and genuinely interested in others. I was just talking with him about a week before he passed, and I truly treasured our conversations, especially about sports. I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to know him, and I will really miss seeing him around. I will always be thankful for the positive influence he had on my career.
Sorry we lost contact with you. When in school together I always thought you were so well mannered and very likeable It sounds like you went way high in your life and made a lot of friends and taught a lot of students I know your mama and daddy were very proud of you and saying well done and you are again with them. We are praying for your family and all your many friends . May God Bless them all John and Lynda Bailey (class of 1965) Searcy, Arkansas
Don was a great high school friend. He always enjoyed our class reunions but sadly wasn’t able to attend this years reunion. We will miss him.
Rest in peace friend.
I met Mr Price at Lumberton High School . He also referred several sports. He was a brother to Don Price and Pat Price. They were well liked by the students My sympathies are with their friends and family.
Dr. Price had been my closest American friend ever since I came to Lamar University to teach Economics in the middle of August 1982. Since then for nearly 40 years until we lately retired from there due to COVID 19, we stayed close sharing our knowledges and Information. Although we helped each other, I owed to him more than he did to me. Since he is 3 months younger than me, I really did not expect he would pass away this early.. But all I can do now is to pray to God to let Dr. Price peacefully stay in his arms until we all meet in heaven.
Don was a beloved colleague at LU. He had eclectic tastes on music and food. His encyclopedic knowledge of college football always amazed me. My memories of Don will always be filled by his kindness and compassion for his friends and colleagues. May his soul rest in peace.
I met Don shortly after I started working in the Department of English at LU in 2018. I was the low man on the totem pole but he was a gentleman, one of the old breed that is increasingly rare in the academy. He treated me with kindness on the unfortunately few occasions we got to spend time together after his retirement. Beaumont is lonelier, and the Lamar community less brighter for this loss.
I am greatly saddened by this news and am very sorry for your loss. Don and I were stationed at the same Navy duty station in Taiwan in the early 70s. We became friends. We had several reunions over the years and got to know each other better.
I had the good fortune of going through a four-year enlistment in the US Navy with Don — from one duty station to the next. We first met in Communications « A School » in Pensacola in 1969, and then went on to work in the same Divisions in Edzell, Scotland and Linkou, Taiwan (in the latter, we both directed our own watch sections of radio operators). When deployed to. warships, our ships were initially berthed a few 100 yards from each other in San Diego and we ended up sharing an off-duty beach house in Ocean Beach.
After leaving the Navy, we both earned PhDs … Don turning his into a successful academic career, mine landing me in DC — but we kept in touch and participated in several Linkou reunions and interim phone calls.
Don was always Don …. He was always wise, always sarcastic, always intelligent beyond his years (even in his 20s you felt you were dealing with a middle-aged man) … and he was the politically astute. I visited with him a few years ago and nothing had changed. He was the same guy who, while sharing an apartment in JinTan in Taipei, corrected some of my most egregious misunderstandings about economics.
However, I admit that I’m glad I wasn’t his student. He spoke Arkansas-English so slowly that I always thought that some of our long conversations on the mid-watch in Scotland could have been appreciably briefer.
I’ll miss you, Don-boy.
Rich