David Theodore Pearson Sr. Obituary (1927

David Theodore Pearson, Sr., made a graceful exit from this life, to join his beloved wife Marguerite in paradise we hope, on Oct. 21, 2020, at Kittitas Valley Healthcare. Over the years, he expressed warm regard for friends & providers who helped in his final years in recent years of gracious life and a brief illness. His wife Marguerite made her exit in 2015. David and Marguerite enjoyed 68 years of marriage with many eventful years of service and enjoyable fun. Marguerite was always a great help on the home front in Dave's advancement and making a home for us all. They were only apart for long periods when it was necessary. In the 1970s, Marguerite completed her college studies in Ellensburg while Dave maintained the home front in the Tri-Cities. They spent amazing amounts of time together as parents, achievers, spectators, travelers, and walkers. Even after their children were grown, Dave and Margie always celebrated Christmas in a joyous way -- decorating the house, sending cards and singing carols, shopping a little, and watching TV specials. David was the first child born to Flora Marilla Huckins and Herman Whittier Pearson. During David's childhood, Mom was hospitalized several times with heart problems after she endured what is believed to have been rheumatic fever, in her childhood. David was also known as "Dave." He and his father and his brothers, Erwin ("Bud") and Dana, and his sister Janice, lived with either pair of grandparents on their farms, until his Mom, Flora, could be at home again. She was very caring and good to him during those times. When Dave was age 20, his mother died, while Dave was serving on a U.S. Navy ship. The navy quickly flew him to shore and he hurried but arrived too late for his mother's funeral. It was some comfort that Dave's mom and his wife Marguerite were friends in the short time they were both in Dave's life. He was born on July 7, 1927 to Herman Whittier & Flora Marilla (Huckins) Pearson during an afternoon thunderstorm. A doctor was also present in a bedroom of Daves maternal grandparents' farmhouse at Quietside on Magoon Road in New Hampton, N.H. The doctor needed to use forceps during Dave's birth, leaving a lifetime mark on his forehead above his left eye. His parents were grateful he did not lose the sight in his eye. They lived a while in Bartlett, N.H. The family lived mostly in three places several times: at Quietside farm, and Pearson grandparents' farm near Madison, N.H., and his father's farmhouse outside North Ashland, N.H., which the boys helped Dad build. There was a small pasture for grazing animals, growing blueberries, and a garden. Dave's father was a school principal and managed grain and hardware stores -- before opening his own hardware store. Dave's childhood was dear to him and he often told stories from the old days. In the last few years, he wrote a four-volume autobiography with the first covering years 1927-1946. Some of Dave's childhood stories are about team sports, farm chores, boy scouting, a dream of flying airplanes (partly fulfilled), and big family gatherings at the Pearson farm near Madison, N.H. By tradition, every Thanksgiving morning began with attendees sampling from dozens of pies which families brought. Dave joined the Civil Air Patrol. A friend who was an aerial photographer let Dave tend the controls while making pictures of New Hampshire farms. In June 1945, Dave enlisted in the Navy hoping to become a pilot, and he was told that he passed every test but color-blindness. While stationed in Washington, D.C., Dave met his beloved "Margie," Marguerite Estelle Lenwell, at a church basketball game. They quickly became best friends. Like Dave, she had an issue with her left eye -- it was her only seeing eye. Within a year, they were married. He was away on ships part time. When Dave was working ashore at Weather Central, they lived with Margie's family at 1861 Newton St. NW. After Dave completed three years in the Navy, Dave and Margie moved to New Hampshire with one son, Dave Jr., There, Dave Sr. did any work he could find and attended the University of New Hampshire on the GI Bill. He also became a sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserve. Then he enrolled in Army ROTC and was commissioned second lieutenant in a new branch, the U.S. Air Force Reserve, in mid-1952. In New Hampshire, with two more sons born, Dave was awarded a scholarship to the masters program at Brigham Young University. He would represent New Hampshire in a program where every state would have someone in BYU's graduate programs. Driving a van-body Studebaker truck, Dave and Margie crossed the country with their three sons & all their belongings. Margie gave birth to three more of Dave Sr.'s sons in Utah. Meanwhile, Dave earned a master in "pupil personnel and guidance" and then worked as a counselor at the Salt Lake Trade and Technical Institute. In 1960, he was hired by Science Research Associates. Dave and the family moved to Billings, Mont. His sales area, which he drove in all weather, was the size of Central Europe. First it was Montana and North Dakota. Then he was assigned Montana plus Wyoming for the second half of his three years with SRA. Dave also umpired Little League baseball games at the field across the street from our family home. Marguerite sometimes served as official scorekeeper. He hunted deer two seasons and brought home one each year to help feed the family. In 1964, Margie and Dave brought the family to Missoula, Mont., where Dave completed courses and worked in the psychology department. Upon learning that one son was deaf, Dave and Margie helped establish the first program for deaf and hard of hearing children for the Missoula school district. Living with six kids and Margie's Mom, Dave and Margie passed a successful year in the X-shaped apartments at the base of Mount Sentinel near the University of Montana. Then Dave was hired in Richland, Wash., and later as a college teacher by Columbia Basin College in Pasco, Wash. He taught reading and social science courses. Then David ran for the Richland school board and came in second. Starting in 1969, Dave and Margie operated a pizza take-out business for nearly a year. They employed their own kids and a young mother who later became a chemistry professor. Dave and Margie brought the kids on two more cross-country car trips to enlarge horizons and visit family -- in 1968 and 1971. Ever questing, Dave completed his doctorate in psychology in 1970 from the University of Montana. Around that time, Dave retired as a major in the Air Force Reserve. Then he was elected to the Richland School board on his second try around 1972 and served until the family moved to Kennewick. In the mid-1970s, Dave and Margie joined three other couples to create a nonprofit counseling service which also offered classes and training. It was "Human Opportunities for Personal Enrichment," known as HOPE, Inc. After two years, the graduate center in north Richland began to host HOPE's courses. Then the graduate center adopted and carried on HOPE's work with an expanded budget. Also, in Kennewick, Dave and Margie sang in their church choir. Margie and Dave bought land in Ellensburg in 1976 and moved here in 1988. Dave tended pasture and he maintained fencing and general ranch upkeep, hearkening back to his childhood experiences. Dave served as junior and then senior warden and vestryman at Grace Episcopal Church. He and Margie sang in the church choir and Community Chorus. Together, they traveled internationally. Dave served on the board of the F.I.S.H. food bank organization for 21 years. He served with the Regional Advisory Board for 15 years, including five years on the Quality Review Team, visiting mental health facilities in 11 counties in Eastern Washington. He was active in the local chapter of National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. In his last years, Dave mourned & missed his wife Marguerite since she passed in February 2015. They are survived by their sons David Jr., and his wife Mickey; their son Robert and grandson Nicholas; their son Richard; their son William and his wife Valerie; their grandchildren Matthew and his wife Stephanie (Olson) and a great grandchild, Luke Lee Pearson; their granddaughter Amanda; their son Michael; their son Thomas and grandchildren Pauleen and Hannah; their nieces and nephews; their cousins; their sisters-in-law; and some good friends. He was also preceded in death by his brothers Bud and Dana and sister Janice, and by his half-sister, Linda Pearson, and his half-brother, James Pearson." A small graveside service is being planned, near term. A memorial & funeral are planned, probably in Spring in Ellensburg.