David McDowell never said an unkind word about anyone. He loved his family and friends with a whole and open heart and committed his life to working hard, experiencing the world, championing justice and equality, enthusiastically cheering for Big Orange sports, and being the kind of man he promised his mother he would be.
During a recent chat about his retirement plans and the get-together he wanted to have in celebration, I told him how grateful I am to have been a peripheral part of his risk/safety team at Averitt a few years back. We talked about how glad we are to have avoided COVID and chit-chatted some politics, because David could chit-chat some politics. That's what he's doing (and loving it at
Father Tom's Pub
) in this photo I took back in 2014. David, tragically, died while snorkeling in Miami on May 2. He was vacationing with friends on an Ernest Hemingway pilgrimage to Key West the three of them cooked-up during pandemic while reading back through the Hemingway's collected works. His death has left his friends and loved ones, including Jack and myself, stunned and heartbroken.
