I heard the news of losing Dave on Wednesday night. Since then, most of my awake hours have been filled with thinking of him, Dana, and his family. Dave was my colleague and friend. He was the director of Marine Resources Center (MRC) at the MBL. Being here in St. Louis, so far from everybody else who know and love Dave, it has been difficult to grieve his unexpected death. So, I decided to write about him.
Dave was one of the best humans you could meet. My office at the MBL was in the same building as Dave’s, and I saw him quite often. It was always a delight to run into him and have a quick chat. He was so knowledgable, kind, caring, supportive. An example human being in every sense I could tell. He set the tone with his personality at the MRC. His staff is just like him: they always go out of their way to help, even though they are often stretched thin with so many people and animals they are helping and taking care of throughout the day.
I would often see Dave with a bunch of visitors, him telling them about MRC, MBL’s mission, the beloved animals, the building’s history. Always with excitement. You could bask in his positivity, knowledge, and kindness.
Most people probably never noticed, but I have had Dave’s face on my powerpoint slides that I use for public science education since 2017. Him and Louie Kerr. During these public outreach talks, I tell the story of how, as a little girl, I dreamed of becoming an explorer like Jacques Cousteau.
I follow up saying that, even though I thought I was going to be in deep oceans in a submersible, or out in the jungles, instead I became a lab biologist. But I still feel like that explorer, I feel like with all the resources available to me, and especially thanks to the experts helping me make my scientific dreams get realized, I get to explore the tiny “planets” that are embryos and organisms.
This is the next slide I show, where I have Dave and Louie photoshopped on that image above:
Here is a close-up:
Because how can you achieve anything without the amazing people like Dave (and Louie)? Him and his team were essential in establishing my animal cultures at the MBL, all the while they made it a joy to be an inhabitant of the MRC. (Except, damn that building’s climate control, but that is nobody’s fault.)
I don’t know how to imagine that building without Dave, I don’t know how to process this.
I trusted Dave’s opinion so much that, anytime I needed to hire a new Research Assistant, first I would go to him and ask if he had any great volunteers or summer workers he may recommend. That is how I had the luck and pleasure to work with some great people at my lab. He just knew how good people looked like, because he was one of the greatest of people.
Dave, my friend, you left a big void that will never be filled. I know I will miss seeing you anytime I visit MBL.