RICK VITRAY
I don’t think I really got to know David until until I started working at Mitre Corp. At that time Bo, Lee, and Ruth Ann were off following their various pursuits, academic and otherwise (I think Lee might have been jumping out of airplanes) and Beekay Court felt somewhat deserted. Laurie and Clinton were too young for “grown up” activities but David was just old enough, so I started hanging out with him.
I remember time playing darts, Adventure (using this thing called ARPANET), Dungeons & Dragons, basketball on the drive patio, etc. Later on when David was pursuing his higher degree, I was able to make several visits to Charlottesville. There I had the pleasure of meeting his future wife along with becoming acquainted to the nuances of parking lot soccer. (The way I learned it the game can’t start until after midnight and under the proper influence. There may have been other rules but I’m a bit fuzzy about that.) You can learn a lot about a person while playing games. David was fair, skilled, good natured, and joyful. Of course we did more than just play games (even when we were playing games).
We had many interesting conversations, both then and throughout the years. Those conversations cemented our bond and remain for me a highlight of our times together. One time David let me know he was coming to Orlando for a conference. Wrapped up with my relatively new marriage and my new home, I hadn’t seen David for some time. We met and started talking, and I was struck that it was as if there was no time gap at all from the our last meeting. Now I recognize that phenomenon as a delightful and defining aspect of our friendship and indeed for true friendship in general.
It has been said that our lives are a series of rooms and what matters is who is in the room with you. Days with David have always mattered and been valuable to me as well as a lot of fun. It’s also been said that you don’t get to choose your family but you do get to choose your friends. I would add, that if you’re lucky, like me, your friends turn out to be your family.