David Edgar LeCount

David LeCount passed away peacefully on November 19th 2025, at 81 years of age. He was born on August 10th, 1944 in San Diego, CA, and dedicated his life to teaching and writing.
As a lifelong writer, he earned his B.A. in English from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing and Comparative Literature from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His passion for writing led to many honors, including a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, the Inspirational Teacher Award from UC Santa Cruz and the Dorothy Wright Teaching Award from San Jose State University. He won a Grand Prize from the Modern Haiku Society of Japan in an international competition. His haiku appeared around the world-in journals across the United States, Europe, and Asia, and, to his enduring amusement, even on bottles of tea in both the U.S. and Japan.
He taught high school English for more than three decades, inspiring generations of students with his humor, kindness, and insistence that everyone has a story worth telling. Beyond recognition from UC Santa Cruz and San Jose State University, he was also extended invitations to share his expertise with Stanford University's Center for Educational Research. After retiring, he continued to tutor students in English-and, for fun, elementary Chinese.
While Haiku was David's passion, his writing life extended beyond it. He authored two books on the teaching of writing: Nonstandardized Quests and Dream Writing Assignments, which reflected his belief in creativity, curiosity, and giving students genuine freedom on the page as a means to discover themselves.
He traveled widely-across Asia, the Middle East, and nearly every corner of Europe -- in total, 25 countries -- collecting stories, friendships, and haiku along the way. Whether in a classroom, a café, our home in La Honda, or a far-off train station, he loved connecting with people, and many of his former students remained lifelong friends.
He is survived by his wife Arla, and his three sons, Jason, Joshua and Dan, as well as the many students, colleagues, and friends who were touched by him at some point. He will be remembered for his kindness, his humor, his constant willingness to be an ally for those confronting hard times, and for his love of all languages.
A celebration of his life will be held on December 8th,2025, in Pescadero, California.
In keeping with his love of poetry, the gathering will include readings of his haiku and reflections from family, friends and former students.