JOHN DAVID STONER

1930 - 2021

STONER JOHN DAVID Age 90, died October 20, 2021, surrounded by his family in San Mateo, California, after a heroic battle with cancer. David was born on December 17, 1930 in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. He grew up in Bloomington, Indiana where he graduated from University High School. At the age of sixteen, he left home to attend Deep Springs College in California, a two year college. He then graduated from Harvard College in 1951, and Harvard Law School in 1955. David served in the United States Navy and then practiced law at Price Waterhouse in Philadelphia, the U.S. State Department, Philadelphia Community Legal Aid, Fidelity Bank, the Federal Reserve, AT&T, and the Greenfield and Chimicles firm in Philadelphia. David taught Law at Rutgers University, as well as History in the Philadelphia public school system. After retiring from his law career in the East, he moved to California and obtained a Credential and Master's Degree in Special Education from San Jose State University. He then taught Life Skills and worked with troubled teens and adults ages 22 to 81 with special needs in Sunnyvale, California. David embodied a wonderful combination of intellectual curiosity, energy and humility, with a dash of impish mischievousness. He loved puzzles, music, sailing, reading, conversation, politics, chess and children. He was always kind and almost always patient with other people – not so much with himself. He possessed an incredible ability to ask questions of his partner in conversation in supportive gentle ways that led them to recognize that the position of which they were so sure was perhaps not actually as reasonable as they first believed. Not only was he employed to advocate, most notably for the community surrounding Temple University in the 1970's and the teens he worked with in Sunnyvale, but advocacy for misunderstood people and ideas was core to David's personality. He was drawn partly to the puzzle and the challenge but mostly by his commitment to justice. Weeks before his death he responded to a class action suit between Wells Fargo and AT&T, not because he would be affected by the outcome, but because he was interested in protecting the members of the class. David's parents, Margaret and John Edgar, planted and nourished the seeds of fairness in him. Deep Springs College, where students are empowered to take responsibility for their individual and communal life, and then expected to dedicate themselves to a life of service to humanity, provided the unique environment in which he could explore his role in making his own community just. Harvard Law School gave him the knowledge and skills to work for justice in the greater world. He lived his life in this manner, with integrity and a keen desire to fight hardest for those who cannot fight for themselves. Although David was a man of many interests and valued all his experiences, he cherished Deep Springs like no other. In lieu of flowers or airfare for a memorial, please consider a gift In Memory of David to Deep Springs College. Donations can be made online at www.DeepSprings.edu/donate (please indicate that your gift is in memory of David Stoner) or by emailing johndewis@deepsprings.edu. David is survived by: his wife, Ruth Freeman; his daughters: Caroline Gray Stoner Robinson (John), Daryl Elizabeth Stoner Bank (Brad), and Ashley Nicole Greco-Stoner Caggiano (Keith); his grandchildren: David Ovid Seaver, Abigail Helene Seaver Amboni (Sonny), Tracy Caroline Bank, Carinthia Alison Bank, and Bella Sinclare Caggiano; his sister Rebecca Stoner Marks and her children (Bentley, Maribeth, and Matthew Coller), her grandchildren and her great grandchildren. The family thanks the nurses and aides in Assisted Living at the Peninsula Regent in San Mateo for caring so attentively and lovingly for our husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle and great uncle. A Zoom Memorial Service will be held on Wednesday Oct. 27 at 7:30 EST, 4:30 PST. Email DavidStonersDaughters@gmail.com for details.