Eulogy delivered by David

I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.

The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fevourless as I.

At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.

- Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy

- First of all I just want to thank everyone here for all your amazing love and support. It is been a real comfort for me and my family to know that my father touched the lives of so many people in so many places.

-To see all these people here is truely an honor to our family and to my Dad.

-It is impossible to summarize or capture the essence of my father in one speech, but one truth that stands out for me is that he was the single most meaningful person in all my life.

-He taught me everything I know about hard work, about spirituality, about how to think critically and how to be open and accepting to different people, ideas and perspectives.

- He taught me and still teaches me how to live life and more importantly how to give back to life.

-My father would often say, “Come on babe, let’s have an adventure”.

- It probably comes as no surprise to anyone that his life was a series of adventures, whether making pilgrimages through Europe and the Middle East, or reinventing himself from small business owner to technology educator and theology academic.

Sometimes his adventures could mean kayaking through the everglades or programming his GPS to take back roads on a trip from Florida to Wisconsin. But sometimes it might mean just going against the flow and challenging himself and even the rest of us.

-Right now, I believe my Dad is on a whole new adventure; maybe driving a giant gilded RV down a open country road, windows down and Sinatra blaring out over the speakers.

- My father is also my father is my spiritual mentor.

- He taught me that understanding and finding God’s voice is not like taking something pre-packaged off the shelf but a rather a life-long journey that requires, study, questioning and contemplation.

- He taught me that it is possible to create a personal relationship with God beyond the confines of formalized institutions. And while I still have many questions and uncertainties, I will always be able to look to him and get great inspiration. And I have promised him never to stop searching.

- So it seems that the older I get, the more I find myself becoming like my father – in the things I say, the anxieties I have or the way I am with my own son, Benjamin.

- And this gives me enormous comfort because if I can become half the man that my father is, it would that I would be making a great contribution to this world – and a great contribution to life.

- And that is what my father is all about – about vibrant life and about giving back to life. My father truly lived, he embraced life in every corner, with every person and in every way.

- So thank you Dad for teaching me about life and showing me how I ought to live it. Thank you so much.

- I love you.