David A. Paige

1947 - 2017

Paige, David A.
Loving husband and father, fun-loving uncle, brother, artist, a lawyer's lawyer, a man of faith, and a devoted advocate for his friends in Leogane, Haiti. David Paige died on the afternoon of February 16, 2017. He was at home, at peace, and surrounded by his family. David was born December 8, 1947, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the youngest of four children to Ray & Betty Paige. In 1954, his family moved to Phoenix, where he attended Clarendon Elementary School. He graduated from West High School in 1965. He proudly served in the United States Marine Corps on a two-year enlistment from 1966 to 1968 and received an honorable discharge. He graduated from Arizona State University in 1970, majoring in English. Prior to entering law school at the University of Arizona, he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone. He was also on a hotshot crew as a firefighter for the United States Forest Service during college and after his first year of law school. He joined the Arizona Law Review in 1973 and was Note Editor in 1974-75. Despite having sworn he would never date a fellow law student, in his third year he met first year law student Jeanne Ronan, and they were married in 1976. They were best friends for over 40 years. Following graduation, he joined the law firm of Bilby, Schoenhair, Warnock & Dolph in Tucson. He remained friends with those colleagues for the remainder of his life. He ended his 35-year law career at Quarles & Brady in Phoenix, retiring in 2010. He was a brilliant and highly respected lawyer who mentored many attorneys during his career. More importantly, to his colleagues, he was the most ethical of lawyers. One colleague said he learned how to be an honorable lawyer from David. To his children, he was a soccer and a baseball coach, the family cook, their unwavering supporter, their mom's biggest fan, and a really cool guy. Their parents' devotion to each other remains a model for relationships in their own lives. In his retirement, he renewed his dedication to the people of Haiti by acting as the guesthouse manager for the hospital in Leogane, coordinating transportation, housing logistics, and translators for volunteer medical teams. This work became a ministry for him and his church community. During the last five years of his life, he traveled to Haiti eight times, spending over eight months as both a guesthouse manager and leader of his church's mission teams. He is preceded in death by his mother and father, Ray and Betty Paige, and his brother Carl. He is survived by his beloved wife Jeanne and their children Charlie, Maureen, and Nick (Andrea Vester); his grandchildren Henry Wallace and Charlie June; his sisters Christine Mikl and Margaret Henderson; his sister-in-law Connie Paige, and many nieces and nephews from both the Paige family and Ronan clan. A memorial service celebrating David's life will be held on Saturday, February 25, at 10:30 a.m. at St. Anthony on the Desert Episcopal Church, 12990 E. Shea Blvd., Scottsdale, Arizona. David asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to St. Anthony on the Desert, dedicated to the "Haiti Ministry." He fought the good fight, he finished the race, he kept the faith.