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Just yesterday I mentioned elsewhere on LJ that an amazing number of significant men in my life have been named David-- my first love, several other steady boyfriends, my husband, a valued therapist, and my thesis advisor.
I was saddened to learn this morning that the last, Reverent David Tripp, died recently. David was a highly demanding thesis advisor-- he began by telling me I couldn't do a thesis without a better understanding of US History, and gave me 1500 pages of background reading before we moved on to actual research! But he was also brilliant and thorough and one of the most compassionate men I've ever met. Working with him for most of a year was one of the most rewarding times of my life, both intellectually and personally.
If you click the link, you'll notice that David was British, and also bore a startling resemblance to a certain American folk character (that's him at left in the bottom pic). It was inevitable that at his first American church, in December, the church's day care center approached him to visit the children as Santa Claus. The British don't do Santa, they do Father Christmas. The director tried to explain the American tradition, and arranged for the costume, and David arrived as expected. The children mobbed him, yelling "Santa! I've been good! Will you bring me lots of stuff?"
As David tells us, his brain clicked into "Santa as God surrogate, and this is the Pelagian heresy!" He knelt down, gathered the children close, and assured them, "You don't have to be good-- Santa loves EVERYONE!" Thus negating the teachers' "You better be good or....." threats, but I bet the children adored him!
He's at peace now, after many years of pain resulting from a heart condition.
I was saddened to learn this morning that the last, Reverent David Tripp, died recently. David was a highly demanding thesis advisor-- he began by telling me I couldn't do a thesis without a better understanding of US History, and gave me 1500 pages of background reading before we moved on to actual research! But he was also brilliant and thorough and one of the most compassionate men I've ever met. Working with him for most of a year was one of the most rewarding times of my life, both intellectually and personally.
If you click the link, you'll notice that David was British, and also bore a startling resemblance to a certain American folk character (that's him at left in the bottom pic). It was inevitable that at his first American church, in December, the church's day care center approached him to visit the children as Santa Claus. The British don't do Santa, they do Father Christmas. The director tried to explain the American tradition, and arranged for the costume, and David arrived as expected. The children mobbed him, yelling "Santa! I've been good! Will you bring me lots of stuff?"
As David tells us, his brain clicked into "Santa as God surrogate, and this is the Pelagian heresy!" He knelt down, gathered the children close, and assured them, "You don't have to be good-- Santa loves EVERYONE!" Thus negating the teachers' "You better be good or....." threats, but I bet the children adored him!
He's at peace now, after many years of pain resulting from a heart condition.
