JOHN DARRAH

John Guard Darrah
46, of Cambridge, Massachusetts died September 7, 2012, when he was struck by a boat while swimming in Flathead Lake near Polson, Montana. He was there with his wife Emily Newmann, their young daughters Maxine and Sadie, and many other family members who had gathered to honor the memory of Emily's stepfather, Ted Smith, who died September 1 in a hiking accident.
John was born in Stockton, California, on April 26, 1966. After graduating from Lincoln High School in Stockton, he moved to Maine, where he co-owned a bakery and lived in a teepee while studying at the College of the Atlantic. In 1986, John walked across the United States to promote nuclear disarmament as part of the Great Peace March. He then joined the Anarchist movement in the United States and Europe, eventually returning to the Bay Area to resume his education at UC Berkeley. There, known to his fellow activists as "Jonnie Vermont," John helped lead the student occupation of Barrington Hall and other major campus protests of the early 1990s. He had an indomitable spirit and sense of integrity and advocated strongly for social and economic justice, focusing in particular on the preservation of women's reproductive rights. While attending Cal, John also studied for a year in northern Vietnam. He graduated from Cal in 1993, magna cum laude and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
After graduation, John developed low-income housing in San Francisco before obtaining his MBA in finance from the Sloan School of Management at MIT. John worked as a consultant for Mercer Management Consulting in New York and then on various projects in San Francisco before becoming a development manager for The General Investment & Development Company (GID) in Boston. John took great pride and satisfaction in his work at GID, where he was developing more than 12 million square feet of mixed-use projects across the country.
While living in New York, John met Emily Newmann, a social worker and artist, at a friend's wedding. John and Emily were married in San Francisco and lived there before settling in Cambridge, MA. John shared his passion for Southeast Asia with Emily, and they traveled together to Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. They enjoyed art, cooking, hiking and exploring the world together. John was a devoted and loving husband and father. He rode Maxine, 7, and Sadie, 4, to school every day on his bike, memorized new songs to sing to them at night, taught them to swim, made papier-mâché airplanes on rainy days, and laughed at all their antics.
John was an avid distance runner and had just completed his first two triathlons. He was equally at home in a tent in the Sierra Nevada or on the New York City subway; he loved the beauty and solitude of the wilderness but also the loud heartbeat, grit, creative surge and ironies of city life. He was engaged in Cambridge politics and was part of the Main Street North Cambridge group that worked on local zoning laws.
John was outspoken and kind-hearted, clear-thinking and passionate, and so full of life. He had a dry wit and contagious sense of humor that kept a smile on his face and those around him in stitches.
John is also survived by his father, the Honorable James (Judy Chambers) Darrah of Stockton; sister Jeanne (David Robinson) Darrah, nephews Guard and Bridge and niece Darrah Robinson of San Francisco; brother Peter (Amy) Darrah, nephew Douglas and niece Delia of Mountain View; Emily's sister Sara (Doug Sovern) Newmann of Berkeley; and many other relatives and friends. John's mother, the Honorable Joan V. Darrah, former Mayor of Stockton, preceded him in death, as did his in-laws John M. Newmann, Mary Misch Newmann and Ted Smith. A memorial service will be held in Cambridge on October 7 at a location to be determined. In lieu of flowers, please contribute in John's memory to Doctors Without Borders, the Center for Reproductive Rights, or the Democratic Natinal Committee.