David R. Schink

1931 - 2022

David R. Schink

Aug. 3, 1931 - May 11, 2022

MIDDLETON - David R. Schink, age 90, of Middleton, WI, passed away peacefully in his sleep on May 11, 2022, dying of old age.

He was born August 3, 1931, in Long Beach, CA, the son of Clifford E Schink and Esther A Schink. He married Lee Burnette Schink on September 14, 1952, in Los Altos, CA. He spent his formative years in Palo Alto, CA, as a die-hard Stanford (Indian) Cardinal fan, a burden he carried throughout his life. He took great pride in being the football team water boy for their 1940 National Championship season, which was their last one he notes.

His military service as an officer in the United States Navy was aboard the research vessel, the Rehoboth. Highlights of his Naval service included running aground entering the harbor in Bermuda and rescuing the Kantuta raft near the Galapagos islands in 1956.

David was a lifelong academic with an undergraduate degree from Pomona college, and graduate degrees from Stanford, UCLA, and UCSD. He received his Ph.D. in chemical oceanography from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in 1963, this was one of the earliest diplomas awarded by the newly established University of California, San Diego. He spent the last twenty-six years of his research and academic career as a professor in the Department of Oceanography at Texas A&M University. An early researcher of climate change and carbon emissions in the 1970s, he earned the moniker Dr Doom from undergraduates who could not believe or accept his teachings about the predicted impact of greenhouse gases. He served for many years in the Deans office of the College of Geosciences where his biggest disappointment was that such academic service was not rewarded with betterment of his football season ticket location.

He moved to Wisconsin from Los Altos California ten years ago, after the death of his wife of 60-years, to live with son Roger, and his family of Dorene, Elizabeth, and Addison. In 2016 he survived the election of Donald Trump, a political stress test that many thought would kill him. He was comforted over the following years but nightly doses of Rachel Maddow, her recent sabbatical from nightly news may have been his final undoing.

He is survived by his brother, Christopher; sons: Jonathan (Gretchen), Julian (Sharon), and Roger (Dorene). He leaves behind ten grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren. He is also survived by countless graduate students and post-doctoral students.

He is preceded in death by: his wife Lee Burnette Schink; his brother, Peter N. Schink (Jan); his sister, Mary Cox (Bill); and his daughter, Alison Cox (George).

A memorial service will be held in Carmel, CA on September 3, 2022.

Memorial contributions can be sent to the "UC San Diego Foundation" for the David R. Schink '63 Endowment Scholarship Fund, K-2502. Send to: UC San Diego Foundation, 9500 Gilman, MC 0940, La Jolla, CA 92093-0940.