David Hall Fields

1926 - 2019

David Hall Fields 1926 - 2019
Lebanon - David Hall Fields, 92, of Lebanon CT passed away peacefully on July 19, 2019 surrounded by his loving family. He was born on October 20, 1926 in New Britain CT, the second child of Clifford Griswold Fields and Margery Rice Fields.
David's family moved to Philadelphia, PA in 1931 then to Lansdowne PA returning to Connecticut in 1941 to live in Hamden. He graduated from The Choate School in Wallingford CT in 1945 and entered Yale earning his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1949. During high school through college he played the double bass professionally in various dance orchestras and for the Pops concerts with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. He continued to play double bass with various instrumental groups for special events until his last decade.
Moving to Lebanon in 1949, he was employed with the American Thread Company at their research department in Willimantic, CT as a dye application chemist. In 1952 he was promoted to dye lab manager. In that same year he married Marion L. Randall. David would tell her their years together were the nearest thing to being in heaven. He would tell her he must have married an angel. They enjoyed enormously their 65 years together in marriage.
In 1960 David was promoted to Research Director, a position he held until 1967 when he resigned to further his education by earning an MS in organic chemistry at UCONN. Upon graduation in 1970, he was employed as instructor of chemistry and math at D.S. Lancaster Community College in Clifton Forge VA. During his tenure there he earned a second master's degree in math education at Virginia Tech. By 1979 he was promoted to Associate Professor. With his and Marion's acceptance by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention to become Missionary Associates, he started his third career change with his assignment to teach in Morrison Academy a K-12 Christian school for children of missionaries in Taichung, Taiwan. He taught chemistry, algebra, calculus and physics and was the science department head as well.
During his tenure there, with help from Marion and local support in a group effort, they established a church in a nearby community.
David and Marion returned to Lebanon retiring in 1992. During retirement he performed volunteer work tutoring in the Willimantic branch of Quinebaug Valley Community College and with Marion, taught informal weekly English conversation classes to a small group of foreign born, mostly Chinese, graduate students at UCONN until 2005.
He was an active member of the First Congregational church of Lebanon and earlier in the Baptist Church of Clifton Forge VA serving on building committees, various boards and committees and teaching Sunday school. He served on the Lebanon Planning and Zoning Commission from 1962-1970 and 1999 to 2017. In addition, he also served on several other town study committees.
Both David and Marion enjoyed the rocky Maine coastline. Special to them both were the numerous summer vacations at various locations along the coast. Their 1952 honeymoon in Friendship Maine brought them to a small rustic cottage directly on the ocean front near the end of a peninsula. They returned to this special cottage multiple times during their retirement years.
David, predeceased by his wife, leaves behind his four children, six grandchildren and two great grandchildren: Timothy Fields of Lebanon CT, his wife Cynthia and their children Morgan and Daniel and his wife Chantal; Peter Fields of Roanoke VA, his wife Vivian, their children Andrew and Jennifer Hungate of Roanoke VA, her husband Nathan Hungate and their two children Blair and Tyler; Rebecca Fields of Mansfield CT; Boanne Avery of Salem CT and her husband Robert and their children Brandon and Jeremy. In addition he leaves behind many nieces, nephews and friends in the US and in Taiwan.
The Memorial service will be held at the First Congregational Church, 588 Exeter Road, Lebanon Connecticut on Friday, August 9th at 2:00pm. In lieu of Flowers, contributions may be made to the CT Missionary Society 125 Hartford CT 06105