David Everett Mathes

LOUDON – David Everett Mathes died peacefully at his home in Loudon, surrounded by his loving family, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2015. He was 61 years old and the cause of his death was pancreatic cancer.

David was born in Manchester and grew up in Deerfield. After graduating from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, he became a member of the French Foreign Legion in Bordeaux, France, and then in French Guyana. As a legionnaire for five years, he fell in love with French language and culture, and afterwards decided to pursue graduate studies in French literature and language at Middlebury College in Vermont, where he received a Master of Arts degree. Later, David received a second Master of Arts degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages from the School of International Training in Vermont. As a dedicated and enthusiastic teacher of French, Spanish and English as a Second Language, David worked in Paris, Cyprus, Mexico, Illinois and Massachusetts. In New Hampshire, he taught at Merrimack Valley High School in Merrimack and Bishop Brady High School in Concord, where both colleagues and students treasured working with him.

David's survivors include his devoted wife, Francisca Acosta-Mathes, who was a fellow college instructor in Monterrey, Mexico, when they married in 1997; his mother, Nancy Hess Mathes of Deerfield (his father Roger Varney Mathes died in April); his brother, Steven Mathes and sister-in-law, Christine Doyle of Nottingham; his sister, Abigail Pitou of Utah; and his brother, Benjamin Mathes and sister-in-law, Caroline Mudge Mathes of Maine; his sister-in-law, Rosy Acosta of Mexico; brother-in-law, Blas Acosta of Mexico; and his brother-in-law, Juan Acosta of Arizona. There are also numerous nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, Jan. 16, 2016 at 11:30 a.m. at the Deerfield Community Church, UCC, 15 Church St., Deerfield, the snow date is Sunday, Jan. 17, at 1:30 p.m.

In lieu of flowers and to honor David's love of tennis and his volunteer work teaching tennis to children, please send donations in his memory to the Homer Labonte Loudon Recreation Tennis Fund, c/o Town of Loudon, PO Box 7837, Loudon, NH 03307.