Gallaudet University

Awards:

• 1943 Mason-Dixon Conference basketball champions
• One of Gallaudet's Five Iron Men

Padden had been a part of the Gallaudet community for nearly 80 years, as a student, an athlete, a teacher, a coach, a revered mentor and father figure to generations of students, an alumni association officer, and an elder statesman of the Gallaudet and Deaf communities. 

Padden was the last surviving member of the Five Iron Men, the 1942-1943 men’s basketball team that won the Mason-Dixon conference championship. The team had a losing record during the regular season, and was seeded last of eight teams in the conference tournament. Gallaudet won three straight games to win the tournament, with all five team members playing every minute of every game.

Upon graduation in 1945, Don joined the Gallaudet faculty. He stayed for 42 years, with two stints as men’s basketball coach. He also expanded the intramural program and directed it for ten years, and served on the design committee for the Field House. He was inducted into the Gallaudet Athletics Hall of Fame in 1995, and the Field House gymnasium floor was named in his honor in 2017.

Don was married for 72 years to Agnes Minor Padden, ’47, who also taught at Gallaudet for nearly four decades. Together, the Paddens were one of the most recognizable and iconic couples in our history, giving countless hours to the university and the community. For 28 years, they wrote and edited the Mileposts column in the Gallaudet Alumni Newsletter. Don was treasurer of the Gallaudet University Alumni Association from 1982 to 1989, and chaired the GUAA centennial reunion in 1989.