DAVID HUME Obituary

HUME--David D.

Headmaster Emeritus of Saint David's School, dies at 87. The Headmaster, Trustees, Faculty, Staff, Boys, Alumni, and Parents of Saint David's School, New York City, mourn the passing of a dear friend, Headmaster from 1953 to 1990, Headmaster Emeritus and Honorary Trustee thereafter. Mr. Hume is perhaps the most revered and influential figure in the history of our school. He came to Saint David's when he was just twenty-five years old and the school just one. For the next thirty-seven years, this brilliant, principled man, with a wonderfully whimsical sense of humor and powerful intellect, set the direction and tone of the school. He helped create the school's most honored traditions that sustain it to this day. In so many ways, Saint David's is today the school that David Hume helped it to become. During his headship, 1,200 young men graduated. David was a graduate of Canterbury School, Yale University, and Columbia University. During his tenure at Saint David's, Mr. Hume served as President of the New York State Association of Independent Schools, the Country Day School Headmasters Association, Interschool Orchestras of New York, the Elementary School Heads Association, St. Thomas More Chapel (Yale University), and the Guild of Independent Schools of New York City; Vice-President of the Independent Schools Multi-Media Center; Director of the National Association of Independent Schools; Trustee of the Professional Children's School of New York City, Marymount School of New York, and Nightingale-Bamford School, New York City. He was a member of the Elizabethan Club, Yale University. He was an avid reader, writer, painter, sailor, boat builder and patron of the arts. Mr. Hume's tremendous dedication to the School for more than six decades is appreciated and celebrated. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Catherine, his sons, Christopher, '68, Adam, '70, Benjamin, '71, and Noah, '75, his daughters, Charity, '72, Amity, '74, and his sister, Rozanne Edmondson, and her sons, Timothy, '73 and Nicholas, '75 and their families at this time. Details regarding a memorial mass will be forthcoming.

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Published by New York Times on Feb. 22, 2015.

Memories and Condolences
for DAVID HUME

13 Entries

March 17, 2015

St. Davids would not be the school it is today without David Hume. He embodied everything that is right about that wonderful plave.
Niel Cannon ('59)

Grant Hammond

March 13, 2015

We at the Mystic Seaport Boathouse will miss you, David.

March 12, 2015

Mr. Hume's vision, creativity, interest, devotion, enthusiasm, and love of art and music as expressed through his headmastering of St. David's have stood by me as a rock throughout my life, a strong place inside me. I will be ever grateful to him, and my heart goes out to Catherine and family as you suffer his loss. Marek Pyka '67, East Calais,Vt.

John Fennell

March 6, 2015

I knew David Hume for almost six decades, from the time I attended Saint David's first seventh grade back in 1956-57 until approximately two or so weeks ago when I sat with Cathy, David's wife, at a hospital in Wilmington, North Carolina, keeping a vigil at his bedside. There was no question that David was dying: it was just a matter of when. He lasted throughout the long night and drew his last breath in the early morning hours of February 18, Ash Wednesday.
I cannot adaquately express how grateful I am for having been present at David's passing. It afforded me the inestimable privilege of placing a soft kiss on his still warm forehead. The kiss was not so much in way of saying "Goodbye" to David as it was a "Thank you" to my life-long mentor and would-be father.

Kenneth

February 24, 2015

Thoughts and prayers for the grieving friends and family, God's blessing

February 23, 2015

A towering figure in my life from 1960-1970 and beyond.
Kent R. Vogel 1970

February 23, 2015

I wish I had known him better. God bless and keep you. Judy Snipes.

Victoria Gilbert

February 23, 2015

I had the privilege of being hired by David to teach in a job that I have loved since the day I began over 28 years ago. He was a true HEAD master and you were always delighted to see him stop by your classroom because you knew you would learn something interesting and immediately applicable to your class after a short exchange with him. It was an honor to have worked with him!

Rey Buono

February 23, 2015

David was the first, and best Head that I ever worked for. He hired me straight out of college, set me up in a fifth-grade classroom, then, gave me all the freedom and support any young teacher could want. From the get-go, he understood my theatrical temperament and need to find original ways to be a teacher.. He allowed my to find my metier, and to fall in love with a profession that is still at the core of my life.
The school was a delight, an utter extension of David's energy, humor, enthusiasm and polymathic reach. I could spend hours and pages describing all the things that made it special, but suffice it to say that 12 East 89th Street was a place were all of us, students, teachers, and, yes, even parents, encountered gladness.
"And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche."

Lawrence Weber

February 22, 2015

A man whose life and work blessed so many.

Kevin McKiernan

February 22, 2015

Decades after graduation, he was still "Mr. Hume" to me and I always looked up to him.
May he rest in peace.

February 20, 2015

May God comfort your family. 1Cor 1 : 3,4

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