David Hal Delp

David Delp (who went by his middle name "Hal") died at a hospice in Fresno on October 31, 2023. He was 79.

Born in Santa Monica to David M. Delp and Beverly (Pratt), he spent his childhood exploring the creeks and canyons of his hometown. For many years, his family lived next door to his grandparents on Centinela Avenue. This two-home compound was bisected by a creek, and for the rest of his life Hal would be fascinated by creeks and rivers, always seeking out the perspectives he gained in childhood.

His grandfather next door, Franklin Pratt, having never had a son, relished having grandsons and taught Hal to love nature and introduced him to summers in Yosemite and at Bass Lake.

Hal's father, worked in the offices of Douglas Aircraft in El Segundo, adjacent to LAX. Hal was fascinated with Jets and Naval Aviation. He appropriated a line from the 1982 film "An Officer and a Gentleman" to encourage those he loved. It was "get jets."

Hal's boyhood home straddled the border between Los Angeles and Santa Monica, so while he started at Santa Monica High, he graduated from LA's University High School. This would be fortuitous, because this is where he met Verda Feigl, with whom he'd marry and have two children

After graduating from Fresno State College, he joined the Army Reserves. He attributed his luck of a reservist assignment during the Vietnam war to his persistence and punctuality. Often serving out his duties at the San Francisco Presidio, he made many important friendships during this time.

He moved to Berkeley and married Verda. They had two sons, Brandon, a resident of Highland Park, Illinois and Shanan, of San Francisco. In Berkeley Hal became a lifelong fan of California Football, and maintained season tickets for several decades. He also started his habit of cultivating trees and gardens, no matter the constraints of space or climate.

Hal worked many roles with the Bank of America around the Bay Area. After his divorce he lived in Oakland and across Contra Costa and Marin counties. At the bank he met Donna Robinson, with whom he had a brief marriage.

He adored his two sons, gave them each more than a few nicknames and worked to impart important life lessons in them. But as they grew older, he heard the call of his native Southern California, and started a new phase of his life in Malibu.

In Malibu, he met Sherry Mulligan, with whom he spent several years together in Malibu, her native Missouri, and eventually in Oakhurst, near Bass Lake. They divorced in 2017. He is predeceased by his younger brother Mace.

Hal is survived by his sons, five grandchildren and innumerable trees that he planted in every place he lived and worked in his life.