In Memory of a Dear Friend

Loss of a Friend

This week I lost a friend that made the other losses of the week…. My sense of security as an American, and my plans for publication…. pale in comparison.  My friend David has been my soul mate, my weekly phone call, my beta reader, and my assurance that we can’t control what comes our way, only our response to whatever comes for nearly 50 years. He recently sent me his “story” to edit, and all I could do is add to it. So in his memory, and in such gratitude for the joy our friendship brought to me, I share his story, and my grief at his loss.  RIP dear one.

David Owen Moses

                                9/17/1944   -  11/15/2024

David O. Moses, son of Ensign Byron E. Moses and Virginia L. Moses (Lougnot), was born in Chicago,  Illinois on September 17, 1944.  Shortly  thereafter, when his father was shipped to the North Pacific, he and mother moved to her family's home in Florida for the duration of the war.

After the war, they landed in Birmingham, Michigan and later, outside Philadelphia, in Wallingford, Pennsylvania. He lived there through high school where he was an average student and athlete but managed to (just) get accepted to Penn State. He put himself through PSU by playing (guitar mostly) in a band while learning a little about architecture and sociology. The "Four Dimensions" typically did a Beatles set, a Beach Boys set, and a mixed set of whatever else was popular.

In 1967, after Penn State, David somehow got into the graduate program in Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. The two-year program was interrupted (occasioned by the fact he was about to be drafted) by the Naval Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island; commissioning as an officer and gentleman; and duty assignment to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois. One of the benefits of his Naval service was his introduction to sailing and big boat racing on Lake Michigan and the Southern Ocean Racing Circuit. After his tour, he returned to Michigan to finish the first Masters and complete a second in Public Policy Studies. Not wanting to leave the Ann Arbor lifestyle, David stayed at Michigan doing research and some teaching for several years and continued to crew in sail boat races.

In about 1978, he accepted a job with the Energy Research and Development Administration in Germantown , Maryland  (which became the Department of Energy (DOE) in Washington, DC) and spent a career analyzing the intersection of energy, environment, and economics. The work delightfully involved alot of travel in the U.S. and northern Europe. He also bought a fine 36' sloop christened SYNERGY which he sailed for forty years and a house in Epping Forest, in Annapolis, Maryland. David served as dock master and then commodore of the Epping Forest Boat Club for twenty-five years.  

His early marriage to Nancy Krupp ended in divorce. A second marriage to Lauren McKee also ended in divorce but produced a wonderful son, Charles Byron Moses, in 2000.

David retired from DOE in 2007, but continued to be busy with parenting and sailing the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Coast (memorably, cruises to Prince Edward Island ,Nova Scotia and St. Thomas, British Virgin Islands). He also designed and had built a fine post-and-beam home overlooking Keuka Lake, one of the Finger Lakes, in upstate New York.

David enjoyed family, friends, sailing, wood working, music, laughter and beer. He had a pretty good full life.

He is survived by his son, Charles of Crofton, Maryland, and sister Janet Seedor of Media, Pennsylvania.

" If I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior.  What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?"       H.  D.  Thoreau

 What David couldn’t or wouldn’t say about himself..

He was a master of word play. He created annual holiday letters with jabberwocky style poems that were delightfully clever and a joy each year.

He was a curator of music which he shared by playing it, creating playlists, and DJ-ing at his home with amazingly good speakers.

He made delicious steak dinners.

He shared his love of sailing and his homes in Epping Forest and Keuka and was a consummate host.

He tended his friendships with phone calls, jokes, shared books, and carefully planned gifts.

He was a master woodworker, and true artisan.

His gifts were beautiful.