Honore' David

1931 - 2025

Honore' David

South Hadley, MA - Honoré Salmi David died peacefully on August 29, 2025. She was born August 3, 1931, in Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico, the daughter of the late Gust John Salmi and Lucile Verback. Her father was a metallurgical engineer for the American Smelting and Refining Company in Parral.

She is survived by her devoted husband, Don, their daughter Michelle and her beloved nieces Kelly and Kerry Bradley and their families.

Honore was home-schooled by her mother, using the Calvert School in Baltimore, a course of home study for American children abroad. At age twelve, she went to boarding school in El Paso Texas, then finished high school and college at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas with a Magna Cum Laude in art. She taught art in San Antonio and illustrated the cover of the San Antonio Express Magazine for Christmas of 1952, while her husband served in Korea.

She married Donald David, whom she had met while in school in San Antonio, in a ceremony in Charcas, San Luis, Potosi in 1952. Commissioned a second Lieutenant, Don went to Korea two months after they were married. When he returned from duty, the couple moved to Oklahoma, and then to New Martinsville, West Virginia, where her husband was employed by Monsanto Chemical Company as a research scientist.

After a transfer to Austin Texas, Honore earned a Master's Degree in Art History Cum Laude from the University of Texas at Austin, and later an EdD in Multicultural Arts Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Before attending graduate school, Honore taught elementary and junior high school art classes in Houston, Texas, West Virginia and Oklahoma, while her husband earned his PhD. After a move to Dayton, Ohio, she was employed by the Dayton Art Institute where she became Chair of the Education Department in 1976. She supervised 90 docents, a children's gallery, and art classes for children. At the time, the Art Institute had the largest first grade museum program in the country, serving over 50,000 first graders in the Dayton area.

Honoré also developed and implemented cooperative in-house, classroom, and outreach programs with colleges, youth groups, cultural and community groups, including the Dayton Ballet, the Dayton Contemporary Ballet (on whose board she served), a program for docents on use of the Diego Rivera murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts, and a museum camp-in for Girl Scouts, the first ever in an art museum; based on The Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, a book for children by E. Konigsburg. The program received attention on National Public Radio and was copied by other art museums. She also wrote articles on Latin American art for the Dayton Art Institute Bulletin, and served as Mid-West Chair of Education for the American Museum Association. Honoré delivered numerous papers on museum education for the National Art Education Association, and supervised a children's gallery in the Dayton Art Museum, for which she developed study guides for children's programs for schools visiting the museum, including one on art conservation which was adopted by the Chicago Art Institute.

After moving to New England, Honoré worked for the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where she supervised the Non-Credit Programs for the Division of Continuing Education, and was coordinator of Fine Arts for the Division. She served on the committee relating college art museums to universities for the National Continuing Education Association, and contributed a chapter on college art museums to the Smithsonian's publication: Museums and Universities: New Paths for Continuing Education.

As an adjunct faculty member in the Art Department at UMass, Honoré taught junior year writing for art majors, offered a pre-trip art history course for art students attending summer programs in Europe, and served as study tour leader for the same groups in France, Italy, and Belgium. Her work with Continuing Education assisted faculty in the development of seminars, conferences, and workshops in the arts, including Dance Medicine workshops, for which she won a national creativity award from the National Continuing Education Association. She gave regular sessions on art programs for the National Education Association at national meetings around the U.S. Among programs for art teachers, she also ran conferences on corporate art collecting, and glass blowing at the University. A successful summer residency program in ceramics for art teachers ran for several years.

At the Boston Museum School, she managed a Ford Foundation Grant for several years, which offered arts management advice to students.

After retirement, David became involved in the Amherst community, while leading a docent program for the University Gallery for six years. She was on the boards and president of: The Amherst Historical Society, the Amherst Woman's Club, Traveler's, and University Women. She also served on the boards of the Amherst Club, Leverett Arts and Crafts, and the Fine Arts Center at UMass. She was Co-chair of the Amherst Cultural Council for six years.

A member of Five College Learning in Retirement, David was able to continue her passion for learning about art and other cultures. She co-moderated seminars in art history, and served on several committees. An avid crossword puzzle fan, David also loved travel, and was able to visit over 55 countries with her husband, who documented the visits in photography, as they enjoyed the art and cultures of people worldwide.

In 2013, Honoré and her husband moved to Loomis Retirement Community where they continued to live.

Memorial gifts may be made to the Alice Maud Hills Society of the Amherst Woman's Club, 35 Triangle Street, Amherst, MA 01002, the University Art Museum or Five College Learning in Retirement. A celebration of her life will be held at Loomis Village, timing to be announced later.