Deceased January 12, 2024
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In Memory
We lost Dave to ALS Jan. 12, 2024.
I first met Dave on the freshman football practice field. He was a hard-running halfback and could boot the ball farther than anyone I had ever seen. Then, in sophomore year, at our first fraternity party as new Chi Psi pledges, there he was, playing the xylophone. “Wow,” I thought. “What a multitalented guy.” Little did I realize.
He seemed able to effortlessly pick up any sport and any musical instrument. Then, when we roomed together junior year, along with Dave Perera ’62 and Hank Fieger ’62, he took up watercolor painting.
We saw a lot of a certain Dot Loofbourow from Wheelock College at weekend house parties during our senior year. It was not surprising that, the week after graduation, we all found ourselves ushering at their wedding.
We lost contact after graduation but reconnected in our 60s when Dave Perera ’62 organized a reunion. Over many beers, I learned about Dave’s career as a lawyer and later a Washington State Superior Court judge. And his successful struggle with lymphoma.
For two winters, we rented ski condos in the same building in Frisco, Colo., where we doggedly worked on our skiing skills. Later, the Nicholses attended our daughter’s wedding in Brazil and visited us in London.
Our last meeting was in August 2023 at the Nichols’ condo in Blaine, Wash. Dave and my wife, Sue, were both wheelchair-bound and neither could talk, although they suffered from different diseases. However, Dave did have use of his hands and could hammer out sentences on his tablet. Even in the silence of ALS, his personality showed through: affable, self-confident, patient, with a sharp sense of humor and an ability to gently poke fun at hyperbole.
Sue died the next month, and Dave passed five months later.
Pete Bellows ’62