Donald Washington Sr. (1930—December 1, 2009), was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Washington was born in West Philadelphia and raised in Southwest Philadelphia. Hhe graduated from Murrell Dobbins Career and Technical Education High School in 1948 and was a two-sport athlete, taking up swimming and basketball. From 1965 through 1990, he worked for Food Fair Services as a warehouse attendant. While there, he won trophies and awards on the company's amateur boxing team. But jazz was always his life and his passion. He studied at private and public institutions, starting to play the saxophone as an elder statesman on Philadelphia's jazz scene since the late 1960s to the mid-1980s.