David Nolan

Dec. 3, 1958 - Feb. 3, 2006

David Nolan, resident of Rockville, Md., died Friday morning, Feb. 3, at his home.

David was born in 1958 in Orlando, Fla., where his father was serving in the Air Force. The majority of his early childhood was spent in Southeast Texas, with close ties to Missouri and Louisiana, and all of his childhood was marked and informed by extensive travels throughout Mexico and Europe with his parents and sister.

In 1973, his family moved to Corvallis where he completed junior high and high school. The valedictorian of the 1977 graduating class at Crescent Valley High School, David continued his undergraduate education in history at University of Washington and earned a master's in international relations from the University of Miami, writing a published thesis on the ideology of the Sandinista and the Nicaraguan Revolution. In 1982, he began a 24-year career as a Foreign Service officer with the U.S. Department of State, serving primarily in Latin America and Africa. Additionally, he held a temporary teaching position in international relations at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from 1999 to 2001.

His last overseas assignment was in Sarajevo, Bosnia, where he served for one year from 2004 to 2005. At the time of his death, David was deputy director in the U.S. Department of State's Office of Brazil and Southern Cone Affairs, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs based in Washington, DC.

In 1984, he married Mariana Marquez of Guayaquil, Ecuador. They have three sons, Marcos, who is a sophomore at the University of Washington, Gregory, a high school junior and Daniel, age 3.

David will probably be most and best remembered for the enthusiasm and subtle humor underlying his profound intellect. On the Web log that he kept during his time in Bosnia, he listed his areas of expertise to be "diplomacy game tactics, counseling for Scout citizenship merit badges, bailando el zapateado mexicano y el sanjuanito ecuatoriano, macroeconomic policy analysis, trade negotiations, boiling down memos, ferreting out logical fallacies, and figuring out political agendas."

The interests that he notes are equally telling of that intellect, that humor and a deeply caring and devoted nature: "weird but true history, ethnomusicology, defending the liberal heritage of the Enlightenment and Progressivism, denouncing crank economics, combating tautological thinking, Latin American revolutions, Southern American and Southern African history, Balkan nationalism, photography, genealogy, folk dancing, historical simulation gaming, hiking in the woods, camping by the lake, looking at the mountains, and being a good daddy and loving husband."

In addition to his wife and sons, he is survived by his parents, Sidney and Mary Lee Nolan, and his sister, Mary K. Nolan, of Corvallis.

Memorial services will be held in Rockville, Md., on Feb. 9. A trust is being set up to ensure the education of his sons. Other donations can be made to the Nature Conservancy or the Rockville United Church Latino Outreach Program, 355 Linthicum St., Rockville, Md., 20851.