DAVID MICHAEL DALY

1947 - 2022

DAVID MICHAEL DALY
NOVEMBER 5, 1947 – NOVEMBER 20, 2022
David Michael Daly, scientist, inventor, and anthropologist, died unexpectedly and peacefully on November 20, 2022, while walking in the hills south of Santa Fe, New Mexico under a crisp blue sky among the piñon pines. He was sharp, energetic, and engaged until the last. Mike was widely known in Santa Fe and beyond for his warmth, humor, generosity of spirit, and ability to have a conversation with anyone.
Born November 5, 1947 in Rochester, Minnesota, he earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from Stanford University in 1969. At Stanford he played water polo, was a member of Kappa Sigma, and was an early participant in the Stanford in Government program.
On his way back from studying overseas in Florence, Italy in 1967, he stopped in London. There, in Trafalgar Square on New Years' Eve, he got to know Ellen Boozer, a Stanford classmate who became his wife and lifelong best friend.
He began medical school at UT Southwestern, before switching to linguistics, a field in which he earned his PhD in 1975 from UT Austin. His linguistics research focused on the intersection of language and neuroscience, with a particular emphasis on how the brain perceives sounds. He taught courses in his fields of expertise at UT Dallas and the University of North Texas.
A brilliant engineering mind, he patented a device to physically support children with cerebral palsy, and in partnership with Ellen designed and built custom travel buses. When his young son's pet fish fell ill, he coded a professional software suite called FishDx to allow aquarium lovers to diagnose and treat a wide variety of fish ailments. It reached worldwide circulation. He was never at rest, filling his home with gizmos, constructions, and clever innovations, from a passive solar air heater to a thermal mass greenhouse. He was also an omnivorous reader. "Mike was the kind of person who could do things after he read a book," Ellen remarked. "He reads a book on sailing, and he's a sailor. And then he reads a book on freon, and he can fix the air conditioner in your car. That's just what he did."
He loved being outdoors and seeing the world, from canoeing the boundary waters of Minnesota, to flying gliders on the San Francisco Peninsula, to hiking the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.
Mike and Ellen were always a team, volunteering together for local elections, Cistercian Preparatory School, the Stanford Alumni Association, and the Wheelwright Museum, where he served on the board. "I spent 55 wonderful years with him and don't regret a single moment," she said. "He loved everywhere he was, and was friends with everyone he met."
In addition to Ellen, survivors include his son David B. Daly and daughter-in-law Jennifer, as well as his beloved extended Boozer family and a constellation of dear friends. In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations to a charity of your choice, or to one of Mike's cherished Santa Fe institutions: the Wheelwright Museum, IAIA, and SAR. A memorial service is intended for the spring.