David Merrill Leedy

68, died peacefully at home on Bainbridge Island, Washington Saturday, May 16th, 2015. He was surrounded by family, friends, kids, dogs, laughter and music to his last breaths.You'd have to say that Dave had the soul of a renaissance artist, if a renaissance artist played soccer. He wrote poems and several novels, made drawings and short movies, tinkered endlessly with problems in math and physics, tutored kids, sat zazen, watched birds and loved movies and music of all kinds. He loved kids, babies and dogs, was crazy for his kids, grandsons, nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews. He only liked to go places he'd already been, saying that like Thoreau he "liked to travel widely in Walden."He was a natural athlete and a committed sports fan. He took up soccer and skiing after age 40 to stay in touch with his kids. In soccer he found his true sports love and was a longtime member of the Bainbridge Blues and a core regular at Bozo Ball, the Sunday pickup game on Bainbridge Island. Three months before he died he told his doctor his only real goal was to get back out on the soccer field.He loved talking politics and was a lifelong liberal and supporter of underdogs everywhere. Even in his last two years he woke up every morning hoping to find that "world peace had broken out".Dave was born on April 10th, 1947 in Santa Monica, California, the eldest of Daniel Cassius Leedy and Lorna Sharpe Leedy's four children. He grew up in the small beach town of Encinitas, CA where he spent many happy hours playing beach volley ball and bodysurfing at Moonlight Beach. Dave and his brothers John and Tom spent a lot of sunny afternoons roaming the sage-covered canyons and hills of Encinitas in long-ago days when it was a sleepy coastal town. He was a star athlete in track, baseball and football, setting records in track that stood for decades and went on to run track at Stanford. He graduated from San Dieguito High School in 1965.Dave's education was rich and varied with many starts and stops over the years. Learning and teaching were lifelong passions. He attended Stanford University, graduating phi beta kappa in 1969 with a BA in English. More significantly, he met his wife Nancy Downs, a fellow English major in a writing class, and they married the day after graduation. After a honeymoon around Europe in a Volkswagen bus, Dave and Nancy moved to New Haven, CT where Dave spent two years in a graduate program in English at Yale. Deciding that the university academic life was not quite his thing, he and Nancy moved on to the New School for Behavioral Studies at the University of North Dakota where, after many encounter groups and seminars, they both earned their teaching degrees in 1972.Dave and Nancy moved to Bainbridge Island, Nancy's hometown, in 1972 and made it their home. Dave couldn't quite stop going to school, and completed a Masters thesis in Philosophy at the University of Washington in 1976. His thesis had been accepted and he was contemplating a PhD at the UW when Nancy and Kelly Webster decided to start the Island School and he decided to jump onboard. He was a co-founder of the Island School in 1977 and helped build and guide the school from its beginnings in Billie Buitenveld's garage to the beloved institution it is today. While teaching and building a school by day, Dave wrote poetry at night and whenever he could squeeze it in. For years his kids thought being a poet meant sitting with a cup of coffee and staring out the window while holding a pen. He was awarded a Stegner Fellowship in Poetry at Stanford for the year 1979-1980 and later was a fellow at the Djerassi Institute in poetry. Never one to stick with only one project or interest, Dave went on to start the short-lived Rolling Bay School, worked at Sunny & Steve's Day Care and ran an After School Program before starting his final educational experiment, the Green Onions Research Institute, which he ran happily for 10 years with a group size never to exceed the number of kids he could seatbelt in his van. He returned to the Island School to run their After School program and serve as a Roving Resource, bringing math, science, chess, puzzlers and videography to any curious kid he could lure over to his table by the drinking fountain. He also worked one on one with many students and assisted in the Art Room.Throughout his teaching life, Dave believed that kids should follow their own interests and always respected kids' ideas and investigations.Dave was diagnosed with brain cancer in June of 2013 which soon after caused him to go blind. He handled his diagnosis, blindness and subsequent treatment with incredible calm and acceptance (an advertisement for his particular cocktail of zen meditation and "The Church of Soccer" if there ever was one).He was an inspiration to everyone who spent time with him in those last years and a picture of grace. In his last days he was surrounded by family and friends who conducted bedside sing-alongs, played live bedroom concerts, sent mixes of his favorite tunes and called in from as far afield as England to sing him on his way. In the last year of his life Dave adopted a mantra from his grandson Hazard and repeated it every night at bedtime (said with gusto) "More fun tomorrow!"He is survived by his wife Nancy Downs Leedy, his daughter Lorna Leedy & Peter Maggio, his son Ben & Tracy Leedy and his grandsons Max & Sam Leedy and Hazard Maggio, adopted daughter Debby Bassett & Mary Zinkin, brother Tom & Martha Leedy, sister Lisa & Dave Thomson, sister in law Jennifer Leedy, brother and sister in law Tom & Nancy Downs, brother in law Mont & Elaine Downs, sisters in law Anne & Jim Carroll, Helen & Chris Haller and Isabel Downs & Bob Warner, and many beloved nephews, nieces, great nephews and great nieces. He was predeceased by his parents, brother John (Jake) Leedy, sister in law Margaret Ann Downs and daughter Jessie Merrill Leedy. Special thanks to his "angels" Karen Fredericks, Alexa Rosenthal, Mary Briner and Angie Spooner Hansen, who kept him physically fit, laughing, and mentally stimulated during his last two years.The family suggests donations be given to The Island School Scholarship Fund or The Southern Poverty Law Center.Family and friends are invited to sign Dave's online guest book. See link at the top of the page.A memorial will be held at The Island School on Bainbridge Island on Friday, May 22nd, 2015 from 4-6pm. Children and dogs are welcome. Be ready to sing.