In 2014, I had come to the Boston area as a visiting fellow at Harvard University. I had rented a room in David's house, while the other room was rented to another student from Colombia, (also named) David. I remember David was the first person with MS I had direct contact with, and I admired his ability to navigate his daily routine as much on his own as possible.

It was going to be a snowy winter, with record-breaking amounts. I remember the news at the time, and the alarming atmosphere the night before the first snow would come. It was exciting and nerve-wrecking at the same time. DeAnne brought over torches and candles and food. And David, he was not phased by any of it. He was always smiling, calm, but also updated on the latest news of the weather.

The next morning we had so much snow that David (the Colombian) and I started to shuffle, and shuffle, and shuffle. For him, it was the first time seeing so much snow, I myself felt like in the Austrian Alps (close to where I'm from). While we helped with clearing stairs and the backside porch, David was inside watching us, smiling. He was very pleased with our clearing skills, I think!

This is just one of many memories I have with David. I may not remember the exact conversations we had, but I remember this feeling of an unlike, temporary family that we had in this small cozy house in Arlington - we were a team and helped each other when needed! David, David and I, and DeAnne coming over frequently to check in on us, bring us food - or torches.

David, you have touched many souls throughout your life, and I am very happy I was one of them. Your smile will always stay with me :)

Mascha

Hello everyone,

Here are a few pictures taken when visiting New Orleans for 2018 Mardi Gras. My wife Claire and I were hosted mainly by Marylee (DeAnne's sister), it was such a great time.

A few days later, David and Joseph Arceneaux joined us, hence the pictures I post here. In particular, we went to listen to jazz in the New Orleans Preservation Hall, and later we had a boat tour in the bayous around New Orleans. It was very brave from David to make the trip considering his ailing mobility, and we were deeply touched by the effort and his high spirit.

Last, I will also post here the 1982 picture of David repairing our Buick starter, without any prior experience. Quite a prodigy ! This episode alone speaks of David's generosity and exceptional helpful state of mind, not to mention his acute analyticqualities.

Special thanks to Michel Texier for sharing the story and to Olivier Briand for taking the picture.

Love to everyone from Claire and Sylvain Sineux

I remember David as a dear friend, first meeting him in 1982 while doing my Master's project in computer science (for my French university) at USL, together with my classmates and friends Sylvain and Olivier, then being his roommate in 1983 at USL apartments.

I visited him later on in Boston around 1989 then I had to wait until about 2001/2002 when he came to Paris with DeAnne, Geoffrey and Erik, and the 4 of them stayed at our place.

We (my wife Gay, my children Gabriel and Caroline) then got a chance to visit Arlington in the summer of 2009 and do some local sightseeing with him.

Even though there was unfortunately a long period of time between 2 encounters, it always felt like last time we had seen each other was only weeks ago.

Hereunder I am going to share a few anecdotes (4) which I feel capture the essence of David, his incredible qualities as well as his limitations (as we all have), in order to remember the true human being.

1- When Sylvain, Olivier and I were in Lafayette in 1982, once our car wouldn't start anymore.

David was one of the people we called for advice and the only one who offered to help for real.

Since it was the end of the week, he came Saturday morning, tried to start the car, nothing happened.

He diagnosed the starter.

With the help of his car maintenance encyclopedia (!), he removed a number of parts from under the hood until he was able to get to and remove the starter.

Then, not satisfied with the idea of buying a new starter, he took the starter apart, examined something like 2 tiny brushes inside and decided they didn't look good and needed to be changed.

Off to a garage selling parts and back to our driveway with new brushes for a cost of let's say $2.

Then, he put everything back together, all this with our help which was very limited due to our ignorance about cars in general and especially American cars!

All this project started maybe at 10AM and it was now about 5PM let's say.

It was then a hard decision to choose a volunteer among the 3 of us to try start the car while David would watch the engine, with the hood open.

We tried once and the car started!!! We couldn't believe it, since David was doing this exercise for the first time with the help of his encyclopedia, and after having witnessed the number of car parts laying around on the driveway during the process of getting to the starter then taking it apart!

2- While I was David's roommate at USL apartments in 1983, I was getting ready to go back to France and I decided I wanted to buy a few vinyl records at Racoon records to take back with me.

David happened to be home and I made the "mistake" to ask him for suggestions.

He dropped whatever he was doing and started to give me a 3 hours private conference about the history of American music.

At the end of this experience, I thanked him but also reminded him of my ultimate goal of buying records.

He then dedicated a surprisingly short 20 to 30 minutes to write down the list of specific records I should buy in order to get a sample of ultimate representatives of different American styles and periods (including some typical of Louisiana but also of Canadian folk singers he liked).

I found some of the bands or singers on the list (concentrating on what was not worldwide known) and still have these records!

3- a friend of David showed him (while I was his roommate) an old bicycle (Peugeot brand) he owned, ready to be thrown away.

David said it would be a crime to throw away such a quality bike from a good brand and the friend gave him the bike.

David installed it in the living room, upside down, and started to slowly fix it.

After a number of months it started to look good but there was still an issue: the 2 wheels were bent.

Everybody said: "Well, you just need to buy 2 new wheels and you are done with that project and can use the bike".

But David said it would be a shame to throw away these 2 quality wheels just like that and decided some further investigation was appropriate.

So he went to the University library and found a book on the physics of the bicycle wheel! (I couldn't believe such a book existed in the first place).

After reading the book, he played, thanks to a tool he had (or bought, I don't remember), with the tension of all the spokes of the 2 wheels and straitened them even though the 2 wheels were rather bent in the first place!

4- One or 2 years before I came to Lafayette in 1982 with my 2 friends Olivier and Sylvain, David had a roommate named David Holland who later told us the following story:

David was doing his income tax statement, on the last day it was allowed (of course).

He sits down to fill up the form and decides his writing is not easy to read.

But he happened to have a typewriter so he takes out the typewriter from the closet where it had been sitting for a long time and proceeds to test typing on a sheet of paper.

Unfortunately the tape providing the ink was old, getting stuck etc.

He finds or buys another one, it still doesn't work.

He takes the typewriter apart and examines the issue but cannot solve it so quickly, because time has passed and instead of being late afternoon it is now something like 11PM.

His roommate (potentially with the help of another friend) puts pressure on David and tells him to forget about the typewriter and just to rush to fill up the form.

David finally obeys, fills out the form as quickly as possible, then jumps in his car, and finally arrives at the central post office of Lafayette (so that his letter can be stamped with the right date) 10 minutes before midnight !!

In conclusion, David was a great friend, very generous, an incredibly knowledgeable person (a walking encyclopedia about everything), but he had warts just like all of us.

Often he had trouble understanding and managing priorities in life and focusing on what was really important at the right moment, to the point of sometimes driving people around him crazy or at least stressing them a lot, but we still loved him, warts and all!

David meant so much to me, particularly in graduate school, but also for many, many years afterwards. His apartment at USL served as a second home to me and our friends. Mary Lou posted a picture of a group us going to a conference in New Orleans. I thought we were heading to MICRO9 in Texas, but my memory can fail me after almost 50 years. This year, MICRO57, shows you how time flies.

I would visit David in Boston for years after graduate school whenever I found myself on the East Coast. David always acted as a perfect host. The picture I contributed comes from a visit with him about 20 years after the tech conference picture. My son had turned one year old, and my husband, son, and I had dinner at David’s house in Boston. The last time David stayed with us for a weekend in Palo Alto occurred about 15 years later.

I only wish David and I had stayed in better contact. I will miss the opportunity to connect with this loving, intelligent, and overall wonderful human being. I will likely still have great dreams of him in the future.

We are so sorry to hear of David’s death. We knew him from our days at USL in Lafayette Louisiana where we shared many good times together!

Our condolences go out to DeAnne and family. 

I will try to post a few pics from back then.

Tim and Mary Lou

Dear David,

I wanted to thank you for welcoming me into your home and family with such generosity and warmth. I remember you and your family fondly. You made my stay in Boston a wonderful experience. I will always remember you as a kind, loving person who was always willing to help those in need.

From the moment I met you, I was impressed by your interest in environmental issues and admired the passion with which you researched and wrote about the topic, as well as your efforts to raise awareness of its importance. For all of this, thank you very much.

I am not a religious person, but I am convinced that you are in a better place where you can rest. Your memory and the good times we shared will always remain with us.

Many hugs to you and your family.