Class Note 1978
Issue
Sept - Oct 2019
Much-loved former class president Dave Graham passed away on May 26 after a long battle with melanoma. His wife, Jane, posted Dave’s last message to us on Facebook three days earlier: “It’s been a great ride. I’ve had a lot of friends. I can’t tell you how much it’s meant to me. I love you all.”
Christine Hughes was among those who traveled to Seattle for the memorial service, so I turn the rest of this this column over to her.
With a skirl of bagpipes, David Graham’s family and friends bade him farewell and godspeed in a sunlit service June 8 at the Mount Baker Park Presbyterian Church in Seattle.Class of ’78s in attendance included Chris Simpson Brent, Barbara Dau, Mara Dinsmore, John Meyer, Lisa Ostafin, Ellie Taylor Sheldon, Rick Spier, and Steve Thompson. Hundreds of other classmates were there in spirit.
Pastor Lee Seese presided. His eulogy introduced us to a Dave Graham less familiar to some: the founder and longest-serving member of the Mount Baker Park men’s Bible study group, a church elder and leader, an enthusiastic and prolific fundraiser (that, at least, came as no surprise), and a man who brought to his faith the same keen intelligence, love of argument, and curiosity that we saw in Dave in so many other pursuits. It became apparent that Pastor Seese, in Dave, had lost both a congregant and a friend.
Dave’s younger son, C.J., remembered his father through one of Dave’s favorite sayings—that his children had inherited all of Dave’s habits, good and bad. Dave’s 40th reunion speech, which Mark Germano lovingly posted on our class Facebook page, had touched C.J. with its humble and authentic admission of faults as well as triumphs, and he spoke movingly of the impact of Dave’s words.
One congregant spoke of Dave’s ability to turn a congregation into a family. Chris Hughes spoke of Dave’s ability to build not just a bunkhouse, but a community. Steve Thompson amusingly recalled Dave’s roles in Alpha Delta and his subversive attempts to overturn the house’s “No Disco” rule.
With words and prayer and song we commended Dave to his maker, and left to the haunting bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace.”
Food and friendship followed, first at the church fellowship hall, where son Connor’s terrific slideshow entranced people, and later at the Graham residence, where Dave was toasted with whiskey sours (a family tradition) and single-malt scotch and Connor showed a slightly less decorous version of the slideshow. Dave would have loved it all.
As he had said: “A person’s wealth is not measured by the size of their bank account, but rather by the breadth and depth of their friendships.”
—Rick Beyer, 1305 S. Michigan Ave., #1104, Chicago, IL 60605; rickbeyer78@gmail.com
Christine Hughes was among those who traveled to Seattle for the memorial service, so I turn the rest of this this column over to her.
With a skirl of bagpipes, David Graham’s family and friends bade him farewell and godspeed in a sunlit service June 8 at the Mount Baker Park Presbyterian Church in Seattle.Class of ’78s in attendance included Chris Simpson Brent, Barbara Dau, Mara Dinsmore, John Meyer, Lisa Ostafin, Ellie Taylor Sheldon, Rick Spier, and Steve Thompson. Hundreds of other classmates were there in spirit.
Pastor Lee Seese presided. His eulogy introduced us to a Dave Graham less familiar to some: the founder and longest-serving member of the Mount Baker Park men’s Bible study group, a church elder and leader, an enthusiastic and prolific fundraiser (that, at least, came as no surprise), and a man who brought to his faith the same keen intelligence, love of argument, and curiosity that we saw in Dave in so many other pursuits. It became apparent that Pastor Seese, in Dave, had lost both a congregant and a friend.
Dave’s younger son, C.J., remembered his father through one of Dave’s favorite sayings—that his children had inherited all of Dave’s habits, good and bad. Dave’s 40th reunion speech, which Mark Germano lovingly posted on our class Facebook page, had touched C.J. with its humble and authentic admission of faults as well as triumphs, and he spoke movingly of the impact of Dave’s words.
One congregant spoke of Dave’s ability to turn a congregation into a family. Chris Hughes spoke of Dave’s ability to build not just a bunkhouse, but a community. Steve Thompson amusingly recalled Dave’s roles in Alpha Delta and his subversive attempts to overturn the house’s “No Disco” rule.
With words and prayer and song we commended Dave to his maker, and left to the haunting bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace.”
Food and friendship followed, first at the church fellowship hall, where son Connor’s terrific slideshow entranced people, and later at the Graham residence, where Dave was toasted with whiskey sours (a family tradition) and single-malt scotch and Connor showed a slightly less decorous version of the slideshow. Dave would have loved it all.
As he had said: “A person’s wealth is not measured by the size of their bank account, but rather by the breadth and depth of their friendships.”
—Rick Beyer, 1305 S. Michigan Ave., #1104, Chicago, IL 60605; rickbeyer78@gmail.com