David Metheny
David Macomber Metheny, 85 years of age, died peacefully at the home of his daughter and son-in-law, Susan Metheny and Larry Conover, in Olympia, Wash., Nov. 6, 2014.
David was born Sept. 9, 1929, in Rochester, N.Y. When he was two, his family moved to Seattle, and he grew up on Magnolia Bluff. Most of his life he called the Pacific Northwest home. His deepest passions involved being connected to nature and the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. As a young man, he enjoyed mountaineering, skiing, rock climbing and sailing. Once his children could accompany him, his focus changed to backpacking, bicycling and hiking. David was a graduate of Queen Anne High School and the University of Washington, where he earned a BA and MBA. He was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity and, for a short while, the crew team. It was at UW that he met his wife of 55 years, Joan Alexa Metheny. After graduating from UW, he entered the Army and served in Korea. David and Joan settled down in Seattle to raise their four children. His working life took place at Sears Roebuck and Co. in Seattle, Los Angeles and Chicago. He and Joan lived out their retirement years on the south end of Whidbey Island.
David was an avid reader and held onto an intellectual capacity and curiosity to the end of his life. In his mid-life, he was moved by the story “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hess and most recently by a biography of Albert Einstein written by Walter Isaacson. He was deeply interested in matters of social and economic justice and lived life dictated by a strong moral code and social consciousness. David was a member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Whidbey Island and a member of the League of Women Voters of Washington.
David’s wife, Joan Alexa Metheny, preceded him in death, as did his parents, David Metheny, M.D., and Dorothy Macomber Metheny. David is survived by his three siblings and their spouses, Sterrett and Lynn Metheny of Tijeras, N.M., Frank and Bettimae Metheny of Seattle and Kate and Steve Baldwin of Bethesda, Md.; as well as his four children and their spouses, Marie Metheny and Louis Gonzales of Walla Walla, Wash., Ann and Jeff Hume of Olympia, Susan Metheny and Larry Conover of Olympia and David N. and Rebecca Metheny of Anchorage, Alaska. He has also left behind his four beloved grandchildren, Kelsea, Gabriel, Isabel and Alexander, who deeply appreciate who he was and the ways he valued them.
A memorial gathering will be scheduled for summer 2015. In keeping with David’s longtime support of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., memorial donations can be made to the Southern Poverty Law Center, www.splcenter.org Please leave memories at www.funeralalternatives.org
