Cripes! This is starting to feel like an Agatha Christie novel. We have lost so many good people: Walter, Jeannie, Cairenn, Russell, Nick come to mind and I know I missed some. And now David.
I had a really bad feeling Sunday morning and thought it was because we lost Mom on a Mother’s Day morning. Maybe I was sensing David trying to say goodbye…
David was one of my best friends at DMS. We often had extended chats and he was always blaming me for making him have to drive home in morning traffic. We vehemently disagreed on a few things but were mostly sympatico.
He loved DMS and spent much of his time helping others or making the space better. But you all know that. I’ll focus on some things you may not know.
During the pandemic, he kept in touch by sending out news he found of interest. We would sometimes get into some long and deep discussions about some of them. One which comes to mind is the concept of spin launching objects into space. Though e-mail lacked the spontaneity of in-person discussion, it had much of the same flavor as some of our time in the Common Room.
David was into NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month. The concept is to write several pages every day in November so that substantial work is complete at the end of the month. He almost talked me into trying that once when I had an idea based on actual astronomical events.
When he chaired Machine Shop, he came up with the idea of providing free safety lanyards which do not pose a hazard around rotating and other machinery.
David was highly amused with calling the Imperial system of measurements “moonwalker units.”
I’ll never forget seeing David eating Cheetos with chopsticks. Most of us would use our hand or pour them from the bag into the mouth, but kept his fingers and face clean.
David and I shared a love for some fairly obscure things. One was the John Batchelor radio show. Then there were chili-cheeseburgers from Tommy’s.
David grew up not far from Orange County Airport (now John Wayne Airport) in Southern California. It was a natural he ended up working in the aerospace industry. But he took detours through military service and law school.
One of his jobs had him in China where he met his bride. When she first came to America, she had a habit of looking into the freezers of people they visited. It turned out there was a stereotype in China that Americans kept ice cream in their freezers. She was just verifying that.
David loved steampunk. He had an instrument dial he wanted to gut and make the indicator hand spin using some electronics. He missed my Arduino servo classes and I regret I will not be able to help him with that project.
I was always curious about but never got around to asking the significance of his handle “Photomancer.” Does anybody know?
