David A. DuBois, of Alfred, New York, passed away on September 27, 2023, of complications of acute promyelocytic leukemia. He was 67.
David was born in Alabama on December 8, 1955, to W. Earl DuBois, a minister, and Tommie Aman DuBois, a schoolteacher, and, except for a period in New Jersey (where his family was sent by the United Methodist Church for their protection after having been harassed due to his father’s anti-segregationist views)–during which time David’s father worked at the Interchurch Center in New York City–and a stint as a U.S. Senate page in Washington, D.C., David spent his entire childhood in south Alabama and northwest Florida, studying the violin with one of the area’s best teachers and moving from small town to small town as his father moved from church to church at the direction of his denomination.
After graduating in 1978 from Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama, David–in no particular order–dabbled in politics (returning to Washington as a Senate staffer and lobbyist and, in 1982, managing the campaign of a Democratic candidate for Alabama governor who was crushed by George Wallace in the primary), worked in municipal finance, attended business school at Duke University, and eventually settled into a career in healthcare marketing based in Florida, North Carolina and New York City. And, while doing all that, he renovated three homes, mostly by himself, using skills he learned from his father.
After 20 years in Manhattan, David retired to Alfred in 2007, smitten with an online photo of what became his house on South Main Street but otherwise knowing little about the village or the surrounding area. Nonetheless, with his friendliness and natural, unforced charm, David quickly worked himself into the fabric and life of the community, and he grew to love dearly his adopted home town and his friends and neighbors there.
David’s survivors include his close friends Alan Griffin, of Alfred and New York City, and Jennifer Mullins Garrett, of Montgomery, Alabama, as well as his beloved smooth fox terrier, Zara (who remains an Alfred resident, albeit in a new, loving home).
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, November 11, 2023, at 1:00 p.m. at the Union University Church in Alfred.
Those wishing to remember David are asked to consider a memorial donation to the Hart Comfort House in Wellsville, New York, on whose board David served since its founding.
