Don Townsend was born in Napa, California on October 29, 1930 at Parks Victory Hospital to Frank and Lorraine "Lee" Townsend. Don was active in all sports throughout his school years, excelling as a pitcher in baseball, quarterback in football & basketball at Napa High. During this time, he was chosen to pitch in the first Examiner All Stars at the old Seals stadium. He was also selected to the West Coast All Stars in 1948 playing three football games in Hawaii, winning 2 of the games. Don was also honored by being the second person selected to be entered into the newly formed Napa High Athletic Hall of Fame.
After high school he continued his education at the University of San Francisco in 1949. During his college years he played football and baseball. He was always proud to have been a part of the 1951 football team that was invited to play in the Orange Bowl because the team was undefeated and untied. Their two African American players were however uninvited. So, the entire team refused to attend. Black Lives Mattered even in 1951 to this great football team. When Don left USF in 1953, he signed a baseball contract with the St. Louis Cardinals, playing in the Cardinal chain for four years. He decided at that time he needed to return home to help care for and be near his growing family.
Townsend started his new career working at the Bank of America on First Street and after a few years moved over to work as a Deputy Sheriff becoming the first Deputy Sheriff assigned as the liaison to the Napa County school system. Later in his career he was promoted to the position of Captain, in charge of investigation. During this time, he worked on many high- profile cases including Willie the woodcutter and the Zodiac. Every murder he worked on was solved except the Zodiac killings. After he retired from his Law Enforcement years, he joined Burns International Security Company as Manager in their control center. After a few years with Burns, Don moved on to the security team at Kaiser Steel, until they discontinued business ten years later. He then worked for Computer Land in the bay area handling security for all of their locations. Later he accepted a Security Manger position at Nestle Corp., then at Beringer Winery, and retired in 1992 (NapaCountySheriff'sOffice).
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