Donald Bartolo Guide died in his sleep on February 12 at Bristol Glen continuing care retirement community in Newton, NJ, after a brief illness. He was 93. Husband, brother, father of four, grandfather and great grandfather to seven and a small business owner, Don’s life was animated by a 60+ year passion for playing and coaching volleyball, which he learned when serving in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. He was coach and mentor to hundreds of young athletes in New Jersey collegiate, club and high school leagues, earning repeat state championships and achieving national rankings for his squads, a first for New Jersey high school volleyball at that time. Don was the oldest of Rose Halleck and Dominic Guide’s three children, born in Paterson, NJ in 1931. His father, an immigrant from the Emilia Romagna region of Italy with a third grade education, worked on the tugboats in New York Harbor, eventually saving enough to buy a gas station in Clifton, and then founded Inter-City Oil Service, a home heating oil sales and service company that became the family business for nearly 50 years. His mother Rose, born in Rhode Island and of Syrian descent, worked in Paterson’s silk mills, and was a member of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU). The family lived in Ridgewood and then moved to Glen Rock, where Rose served as secretary of the Glen Rock Democratic Party Committee for many years. Don lived in Glen Rock more than 60 years, and remembered driving to pick his mother up from work at the mills in Paterson, where the noise of the giant looms was “the loudest thing I had ever heard.” After graduating from Ridgewood High School in 1947, he enlisted in the US Air Force and completed his basic training in Biloxi, Mississippi. He was stationed at White Sands missile range in New Mexico and was attached to the 509th bomber wing. Staff Sergeant Guide began working on a top secret project in what was known as “Area 51” in Nevada and was involved in the testing of nuclear weapons. The details of his work at Area 51 went with him to the grave, as he took his security clearance quite seriously. So seriously that decades after his discharge from the Air Force, he visited the International UFO Museum in Roswell, NM and was shocked at some of the items on display, certain that such things were still classified. In 2022, Sergeant Guide was honored for his service by the Honor Flight Network’s Hudson Valley chapter. The mission of HFN is to fly veterans to Washington DC for a day of sightseeing and remembrance. Upon his honorable discharge from the USAF, Don returned to New Jersey and attended Newark College of Engineering, now New Jersey Institute of Technology, and majored in electrical engineering. He worked for Honeywell Corporation for a few years before joining his father to run Inter-City Oil Service. In the summer of 1957, he was part of a friend group who rented a bungalow in Manasquan for the summer season. He was introduced to Helen Kenney of Harrison NJ who was part of another group renting for the season. “We had an entire summer to see each other exclusively at the shore,” Helen wrote. “Our first real date back at home was to the Museum of Natural History (in Manhattan). His car broke down on the way home from the city!” They were married September 26,1959 at Holy Cross Church in Harrison. After briefly living in Clifton, they moved to Glen Rock, where they raised four children and lived for more than 50 years. Don mixed in a dedication to sports with running the business and spending time with family, often at his parent’s summer cottage in Ortley Beach. He was a rabid New York Mets baseball fan and a New York Giants football fan. He was a regular softball player and sponsored teams in the area adult and youth softball leagues, and was a regular volunteer at the Ridgewood YM/YWCA. But his first, and last, sports love was volleyball. He was considered a pioneer in building the sport in New Jersey. Guide is a two-time Newark Star-Ledger Coach of the Year, being named the 1999 Girls Coach of the Year and the 2007 Boys Coach of the Year. In five seasons with the Paramus Catholic girls volleyball squad, the Paladins won three state championships, registering a 115-17 record. PC was also the No. 1 team in the Star-Ledger Top 20 four of those seasons under Guide. Paramus Catholic, with Guide as the coach, became the first New Jersey team to be nationally ranked, being listed No. 43 in The VBall.com Top 50. He also coached at Fairleigh Dickinson University for three seasons, among other brief stints at N.J. colleges. Guide turned St. Peter’s Prep into a boys volleyball powerhouse for a decade and a half, doing so from the late 1990s to the mid 2010s. He tallied a 345-83 record in his time building the program. The Marauders marched to six Hudson County titles and five sectional titles under Guide, and made four appearances at the Tournament of Champions. He served as USA Volleyball’s Garden Empire region commissioner in the 1980s. His daughter Lisa recalled a memorable exhibition tournament in Newark which pitted the 1984 gold medal-winning US Men’s national team against the Polish national team when that country was still under a communist dictatorship. “The US men were largely beach players from California, and were riding high from winning the gold at the 1984 summer games. They were having a great time at the match, and at the dinner afterwards which honored the two teams. The Polish team was tightly controlled by “handlers,” weren’t allowed to have a beer at the dinner, and were ushered back to their hotel rooms while the US team went to hang out in the bar. My mom and dad kept pushing me to go into the bar - “go meet some of the players!” - I was 24 at the time and I guess they thought there might be a match in there for me! I was too shy though, and left.” Guide was inducted to the NJSIAA Volleyball Hall of Fame and was awarded the Legends of the Game Volleyball Award in 2010. Later in his career, Guide coached the freshman girls volleyball team at Fair Lawn High School, building the foundation for the skills and mental toughness needed for the athletes to prepare for the varsity team. He continued coaching until his 89th year, serving the last few years as an assistant coach for the Kearny High School boy’s program. According to his granddaughter Isabel Guide - who played club ball with her grandfather, and was captain of the Fair Lawn varsity squad in 2012 - 2014 - He was known as a tough, but fair coach. His approach to technical development was simply rooted in repetition and rehearsing high-stake, game-like scenarios. His greatest gift to so many young athletes had little to do with technique though, and rather the passion one develops for the game, leading to heartwarming memories, life lessons, lifelong friends, and tight-knit communities. Don was predeceased by Helen, his wife of 62 years, and his son James. He is survived by brother Bill and sister Joyce; daughter Lisa (John Passacantando), sons Christopher (Christine Alnemy) and Kenneth, daughter-in-law Debby Kowal; grandchildren Michele (Alex Sharenko), David (Yami Marquez), Susan (Dan Marvin), Sophia, Isabel and Mollie; and great grandson Jamie. A private service followed by military interment will be held February 24. An additional memorial will be held in the spring at St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City. A scholarship fund for young athletes is being developed and the family asks that donations be made to that fund with details available shortly. All arrangements are under the direction of Tilghman Funeral Home located in New Egypt, NJ.