Don Alan Florian

Don Alan Florian of Southington, completed his earthly life at home with family by his side on the morning of Sunday May 17, 2026, his 93rd birthday. Don was born on May 17, 1933 in Hartford, Conn. to the late Rodriguez Steuart and Ethel (Tolles) Florian. The third of seven children, he grew up on West Street in Plantsville, attending the one-room schoolhouse up the road in his early educational years and later graduating from Southington High School where he was senior class president. During his toddlerhood, his family bestowed upon him the nickname “Pucky,” a moniker that followed him throughout his lifetime.

A piano prodigy, Don attended the Yale School of Music for two years before enlisting in the Army where he served as an assistant chaplain for another two years in Nuremberg, Germany. That’s where he met Nancy Bowers, the sister of a fellow enlistee from Salt Lake City. They had one date before each of them headed stateside to serve missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Don fulfilled his two-year voluntary assignment in California. During that time, their courtship unfolded through hand-written correspondence. They married on August 22, 1958 in the Salt Lake City Temple for time and all eternity and then finished their college degrees at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah before eventually settling down in Southington to build their lives and their family.

Don spent his career developing the business of American Standard Co., a Plantsville entity he owned and managed with two of his brothers. Housed in the historic industrial brick factory at 24 West Street, the company manufactured and sold the patented Florian Ratchet-Cut Pruning Tools, an innovative, lightweight line of gardening implements that employed a leverage mechanism—invented by his father under U.S. Patent Numbers 3273240 and 3390455—to trim vegetation instead of relying solely upon the sharpness of the blade and the strength of any particular human. In fact, Don was a proud descendant of a long line of inventors. His grandfather devised instant film and the photo booth. His great-grandfather was a scientist and inventor in Thomas Edison’s storied Menlo Park laboratory. Spending time with his grandfather was always a journey of discovery, Don would say, especially the times when he was allowed to see the filament from the first incandescent lightbulb.

Don was a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was devoted to fostering the local congregation in Southington. In his decades as a churchgoer there, he ministered in many capacities: Sunday school teacher, pianist for both the children’s and adult choirs, two stints as Bishop. He also served his church at the statewide level, first as a counselor and then for many years as a patriarch. After his retirement, he spent countless hours performing volunteer work at his local temple in Boston and eventually Farmington, Conn. For years, he volunteered at Southington’s Bread For Life. When his children were young, Don served on the Southington Board of Education.

Don was a gentleman farmer and provided much of the food for his family from home-grown fruits and vegetables, beef steers and pigs. Chickens, ducks, and geese roaming the homestead yielded the family’s eggs. Dairy cows supplied milk and butter. The domestic food production did not save money considering the inputs and labor, but it was a source of satisfaction for Don to experience this form of self-reliance. It was also a way for him to teach his children about responsibility. Don adored cooking and gathered a hefty collection of recipe books that he read as if they were thrillers. Oddly, he never once followed a recipe, as far as his family could tell, and ruined plenty of Julia Child’s and Martha Stewart’s masterpieces with his ill-considered improvisations. His worst concoctions were his various forms of “slumgullion,” a mixture of whatever was leftover in the refrigerator. Don was painstakingly frugal and abhorred waste. On family outings, he would purchase one piece of cake and give each of his children a single bite. At fairs and church events, he would enter pie-eating contests and then nibble at the edges so he could take the entire pie home to share with his family. In his golden years, Don excelled at mini golf, usually besting his children and grandchildren in matches he played at Hidden Valley in Southington. He particularly enjoyed excursions to the Connecticut shoreline, which included antiquing, a fisherman’s platter at Lenny & Joe’s, and an ocean view table at the Water’s Edge in Westbrook where he’d order a serving or two of crème brulee. Of course, he always needed to be home by 7:00 p.m. for his evening lineup of “Jeopardy,” “Wheel of Fortune,” and “Everybody Loves Raymond.” What made him happiest though was playing carols on the piano each Christmas Eve, surrounded by some 30 stone-cold sober but raucously singing family members belting out “Deck the Halls” and “Jingle Bells,” among others. He also enjoyed regaling his family with after-supper impromptu piano medleys that included pieces by Bach, Schumann, Beethoven, and Chopin, who was his favorite composer.

Don is survived by his eight children: Melanee, Rebecca, Bradley, Emily, Ellen, Aaron, Elizabeth, and Rachel; 24 grandchildren, and 27 great-grandchildren (and counting). He is also survived by his brother David. In addition to his parents, Don was predeceased by his wife Nancy. They had been married for 62 “long, hard, miserable years,” as they always teased each other on every wedding anniversary, before she reached the conclusion of her life in late 2020. He was also preceded in death by his grandson Joshua Florian, and siblings Roy, Diana, Nathaniel, Jonathan, and Walter.

Calling hours will be Tuesday, May 26 from 4:00-6:00 p.m. at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 750 Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike, Southington. Funeral services will immediately follow from 6:00-7:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served. Interment is private. In lieu of flowers, contributions to Bread for Life would be appreciated (https://breadforlife.us/). Plantsville Funeral Home has been entrusted with handling the arrangements. For online condolences or directions, please visit www.plantsvillefuneralhome.com.