David E. Bonnett

David Edward Bonnett

December 1, 1940 – September 16, 2024

David Bonnett, age 83, passed away surrounded by his loving family on September 16th due to complications of congestive heart failure. He was born to Edward and Virginia (Henderson) Bonnett in Weston, West Virginia on December 1st, 1940, the oldest of 5 sons. Dave graduated from Shaler High School in Glenshaw, PA in 1958 and joined the Navy at the age of 17. He met his wife of nearly 60 years, Dorothy (Dottie) Bonnett, while stationed in Coronado, CA. They were married on December 28, 1964. David graduated from Miami University in 1968 with a degree in Chemistry. After many moves, they settled in Silverdale in 1977 on their farm where he retired as a Lieutenant Commander in 1980.

He is survived by his spouse Dottie, daughters Shayla Bonnett-Leer and Shannon Manke (Joe) and his 4 grandsons - David, Dylan, Johnathan and Benjamin. He is also survived by his brothers – Daniel, J. William and Michael (Cathy), his sister in-law Audrey Bonnett and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews, as well as Luke and Leia, his two rescue dogs. He is proceeded in death by his parents, his brother R. Steven and his sister-in-law Kathy Bonnett. 

During his enlisted years, David served as a flight crewman on P2V airplanes, living in Okinawa for 5 years and traveling extensively in Asia. David was selected for Officer Candidate School and, after college, was recruited for nuclear submarines. While on submarines, he was based in South Carolina, Spain and Idaho where he taught Nuclear Power School. 

Dave, Dottie, Shayla and Shannon bought a challenging, 1890s farmhouse and soon had horses, cats, dogs, pigs and chickens. Family was very important to Dave, and he supported his daughters serving as PTA President, 4H Leader, and Marine Science Society President. He began a series of interesting occupations in applied science, working for Tracor, Loral, Microsoft and Vulcan where he supervised the building of Paul Allen’s private submarine. He left Tracor to go to Queensland, Australia with Dottie where she taught high school. Upon leaving Australia, Dave and Dottie moved to Alexandria, Egypt for 3 years, where Dave worked on submarines furnished to the Egyptian Navy as part of the Camp David accords. He started his own consulting company when he returned and had a variety of applied science projects with Microsoft and Vulcan. 

After retirement, he began his favorite endeavors, the most important of which was spending time with his daughters and grandsons. He was a hands-on grandpa who was delighted to spend as much time as possible with his grandsons. His other passion, arising from his years in the Navy, was marine mammal acoustics. Dave and Dottie began making nearly annual trips to the Peruvian Amazon in 2001, where Dave recorded and analyzed Pink River Dolphins using hydrophones he built himself. When Covid stopped the trips in 2019, Dave then branched out to orcas and sperm whales. He enjoyed collaborating with colleagues in Florida, France and Chile, resulting in the publication of numerous papers in scientific journals. His last days were spent with family and finishing up data with his collaborators.

c A Celebration of Life will be held in April. In lieu of flowers, please consider supporting CONAPAC.org, Amazon Promise.org or the Kitsap Humane Society. Those of you who know Dave won’t be surprised to learn he has 46 pairs of reading glasses to donate to Peru and that’s without the ones yet to be found in his office. He would urge you to support causes that will make the world a better, kinder place, especially for children and animals, and to vote for candidates that will make that happen. 

We want to thank our friends for their thoughts and support as well as the medical personnel who provided such compassionate care through his illness.

Arrangements entrusted to Cook Family Funeral Home of Bainbridge Island, WA.