David Fellows Hart

Died on September 24th, 2015 at Casa Dorinda of congestive heart failure.

He was born in Chicago on June 25, 1926, the elder son of Percival Gray Hart and Marguerite Fellows Hart. He attended the University of Chicago High School and graduated from the Fountain Valley School of Colorado. His undergraduate education was in chemical engineering at Yale from which he graduated in 1946 with a BE and membership in Tau Beta Pi. In1948 he received an MSE in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan.

The US Navy had major influences on Dave's life. Halfway through Yale he joined the Navy V-12 program there and continued on until graduation and commissioning. He stayed on active duty for another year including some time at Bikini for the A-bomb tests. He was recalled in 1951 for two years during the Korean war, serving on a destroyer escort as a LTJG and LT, and ending up as executive officer. The most important event of that duty tour was meeting, courting and marrying Margret Small in 1952. Peg and Dave had lived their first twelve years a block away from each other in Chicago but, happily, had forgotten each other's childhood personas.

Dave's career with Shell Oil Co. began in 1948 at the refinery in Long Beach, CA. After Navy service he and Peg returned there and produced their family - daughter Dana in 1953 and son John in 1955. In 1958 he was transferred to Head Office in New York City where, except for two years at the refinery near St. Louis, he worked happily and productively until he left Shell in 1971. Next came an interesting decade with a tiny firm that did economics and energy analyses for the US Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Department. His last employment was with Stauffer Chemical Co. from 1983 to 1985.

Peg and Dave lived in Darien and, later, New Canaan, CT, from 1958 until they moved to Santa Barbara in 1989. There they settled in Birnam Wood Golf Club, where Dave was elected president in 1992. They moved to Casa Dorinda at the end of 2000.

The Episcopal Church mattered to Dave. He first got involved at age 8 as a paid (75 cents per month) choirboy and, in addition to singing in choirs, served over the years as Vestryman and Senior Warden at St. Paul's in Darien and, for eleven years, Treasurer of All Saints-by-the-Sea in Santa Barbara. During the 1970s Peg and Dave presented 30 Episcopal Marriage Encounter weekends, mostly in the US and Eastern Canada, but also as far afield as Durban, South Africa, and Winnipeg. Dave considered this ministry as the most rewarding work he ever did.

Dave liked to sing. He sang in the Glee Clubs at Yale and Michigan and in his church choirs. At Michigan he was a founding member of The Novelaires which became the official barbershop quartet of the Glee Club. He was also an enthusiastic, but mediocre, golfer who, mostly with Peg as partner, won several more events than should have been expected.

Dave is survived by Peg, his beloved wife of 63 years, by their children Dana and John (Becky), by three grandchildren (Brian, Carolyn and Emily), and by his brother Gurnee (Marjorie).

A Memorial Service will be held at All Saints-by-the-Sea at 2PM on Saturday, October 17 with a reception following at Casa Dorinda at 4PM.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Santa Barbara County Foodbank.