David ELLIS

ELLIS, David

79, of St. Petersburg, FL, passed away at home March 11, 2018. Dave was born in St. Louis, MO and grew up in White Plains, NY. He graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Industrial Design. In the early 1970s, Dave co-founded Designers Consortium, Ltd. in Maryland. He developed a long consulting relationship with the Smithsonian Institution which resulted in the design of the Milestones of Flight Hall in the Air and Space Museum for it's opening in 1976. He also designed the Hall of Electricity at the American History Museum. He then started G. David Ellis and Associates, Inc. His clients included the Library of Congress, the African American Museum of History and Culture in Philadelphia, PA, and the Government of Haiti. He was a principal design consultant on two major exhibitions for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Royal Commission.

In 1986, Dave was one of the founding partners in Hands On! Inc. and they created Great Explorations, the Hands On! Museum in St. Petersburg, FL. In the late 1990s, Dave visited his Syracuse professor and friend Lee Dusell and built an earth path labyrinth on his land. His labyrinths became a fixture in St. Petersburg's First Night tradition. Dave, along with his wife, Astrid, volunteered at Anytown, a leadership program for young people to inspire change in communities.

In 2004, Dave and Bob Devin Jones launched The Studio@620, a place to bring people from diverse cultural backgrounds to experience artistic and educational programs in a variety of art forms. Over the past decades, Dave sang in several bands and performed locally. He will be deeply missed by his family, his wife, Astrid; daughter, Kirsten; son, Steve; grandchildren, Annika, Eric, and Meaghan; brother, Roland and all who loved and knew him. A memorial will be held at The Studio@620 May 12, 2018, 1-4 pm.