Mary Marwitz's Remarks at David's memorial service

Good morning.

We are here today because we love David Starnes. We’re here to bear witness to that love and to a life lived with passion, generosity and wit. One of his friends said long ago in Colorado that David “farmed love.” It is a perfect description of the process by which he cultivated his life.

His passions were nature, cinema, and music. He could carry on full conversations made up entirely of lines from various movies, from “On the Waterfront” to “Bonnie and Clyde” to “Five Easy Pieces” to “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.”

We're here because we miss him terribly. News of his death Sunday brought a common reaction: “This is too much to bear.” David understood fragility–he appreciated it and always responded to it with gentleness. Perhaps he recognized it in himself and so was particularly compassionate with others who were hurting or vulnerable.

We’re here because David lived many lives and shared them with us; he packed as much into his 64 years as others might do in twice the time. Let me offer a partial list of the jobs he held, in no particular order:
Staff, Port Angeles Public Library
Clerk, Tyee Used Book Store
Dishwasher
Gardener
FM91 Public radio personality and jazz programmer
Short order cook
Group home attendant
Sketch artist
Caretaker, Wassau Island
Painter
Teacher, South College and Georgia Southern University
Poet and Keeper of the Word

He was a traditional romantic as well as an emotional one–he loved the past, mystery, things of the spirit and things of nature. He favored emotion over rationality. He celebrated beauty in the smallest events– clutching his heart as he spoke of a niece’s snaggle-toothed smile or the fragrance of new gardenias.

We’re here because David loved to give gifts, but like Denys Finch Hatton in “Out of Africa,” not at Christmas. Our lives are full of the gifts he gave us. His radio voice, his piercing eyes, his ambling walk, his ready quip. How to teach our students, paint our houses, water our plants, walk our dogs, watch foreign films, listen to music, go to concerts, walk the beach, be a romantic.

We are here to be together, as we miss him and celebrate his life and remember him well.