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After Donald Lamp's wife died Jan. 22, “he was ready to be with her,” said their daughter.
He and Marjorie had been married 69 years.
“We kind of think he died of a broken heart,” the daughter said. “We can't imagine one without the other.”
Longtime Omahan Donald G. Lamp died Tuesday at the Landing at Williamsburg Village, an assisted living residence in Lincoln.
He was 94 and died from Parkinson's disease and melanoma, said his daughter, Ginni Lamp Thomas of Fairfax Station, Va. Her husband is U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Donald Lamp co-founded the architectural and engineering firm now called Lamp, Rynearson & Associates Inc.
He also developed the Ginger Cove and Ginger Woods neighborhoods in western Douglas County.
“He was always a planner and so visionary,” his daughter said. He wanted to show people that it would work to live outside Omaha and commute in, she said.
“It worked for me,” she said. “I got a car out of it at 16.”
Lamp met his future wife at the University of Nebraska, from which he graduated as a civil engineer. He also served with the Navy during World War II on the USS La Porte, Thomas said.
Marjorie Lamp was active locally and nationally with the Republican Party.
“He supported her in her political interests,” Thomas said. “He was not going to be the activist in the family like my mom was. He was as patriotic as she was but not an activist.”
Both Lamps volunteered for the United Methodist Church and at Methodist Hospital, where he was on the board and she headed the women's organization.
In retirement, he continued his work for the Methodist Church, starting at St. Paul in Benson, the family's longtime church. “He helped really expand the church community,” Thomas said.
He also worked with St. Luke and Living Faith churches, she said.
The Lamps were travelers, visiting all 50 states and 40 countries, Thomas said. They also were big Husker fans.
His daughter said he also liked to draw, paint, read, fish, boat and play card games — rummy with his wife and bridge with friends.
When Clarence Thomas was named to the high court, his in-laws made a prayer bench for Thomas.
“It was my dad who designed my husband's prayer bench,” Ginni Thomas said.
Other survivors include sons Russell Lamp of Flowery Branch, Ga., and William Lamp of Columbia, Md.; daughter Joanne Elliott of Lincoln; nine grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; and a sister, Betty Jacobs of Arizona.
Services will be at 10 a.m. Monday at Living Faith United Methodist Church, 182nd and Q Streets.
Contact the writer:
444-1165, sue.truax@owh.com
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