David Dorsey Moran

May  3rd, 1928 January  13th, 2025
Keene, New Hampshire
David Dorsey Moran

Obituary

David Dorsey Moran was born on May 3, 1928 in Greensboro, NC. He died peacefully on January 13, 2025 in Keene, NH. He grew up in Washington, DC and lived in the area for the first half of his life. His parents were William Allen Moran and Hazel Amanda Wray. He was predeceased by his sister, Dixie Bortz Moran Dogget and by his son, Mark Allen Moran. David is survived by his beloved life partner, Dottie Ledwith, and his children, Timi McGary, Tammy Parks, and Eric Moran, his nephew, William Bortz, and grandchildren, Noah Sax, Zachary, Matthew, and William Parks and Nathalia, Joshua, and Isabella Moran. He spent the last fifty years of his life in the Keene area having built a cabin by hand in Gilsum.

David served as an MP in the army after high school, which suited him well as he was muscular and athletic,and had the Irish gift of gab. He went to college on the GI Bill, first Syracuse University and then George Washington University. He later completed his master’s degree in education from SIU Edwardsville. David worked as a high school English teacher for many years and then taught creative writing at Keene State College. David also taught English in China and spent a few years traveling around the world, stopping for long stays in France, Thailand, Ecuador, Yugoslavia, and England as well as many areas around the United States.

David was always involved in sports, playing for his Coolidge High School football (linebacker) and baseball (shortstop) teams, serving as team captain. He played tennis semi-professionally for many years. During the summers, he was the playground director for the Summer in The Parks program. Later in life, in Keene, he worked for an employment placement program and for a fuel assistance program. David was active at the Keene Senior Center and was an avid bridge player. He also enjoyed contra dancing. He was a lifelong champion of human and civil rights. He was also a lifelong vegetarian.

David loved poetry and writing. His house overflowed with books and guests, including neighbors, visitors from foreign lands, and friends from the local Unitarian church. He kept a journal of his many travels and wrote poetry. David, like his father was an Irish tenor and enjoyed singing “Oh, Danny Boy” and “Sweet Molly Malone.” He was singing up until his very last days. He had a very long and full life. He is sorely missed by his family and friends.

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January 29, 2025
This is one of the days that I am really missing David. He was important to me is so many ways. He was an exceptionally moral person believing that everyone should be treated fairly, you should help whenever you can, you should include everyone - especially those who are marginalized, you should not name call or use racial epithets, he believed you should always tell the truth not matter what, he seldom used drugs or alcohol because it was damaging to the body - but he also thought each of us should try everything - travel, play, dance, art, music - even if you weren't good at it.

Many of my early memories of him are him running after us and playing games. He enjoyed ball games and cards games of all kinds. We always had animals, but he loved dogs the most, especially our beagle, Molly. In the summers, he ran the local playground and was loved by the hundreds of kids who attended. He always made sure to include everyone, especially anyone who was alone. He would get the kids to clean up the playground and park by offering one M&M per handful. He made a game of everything. Once when he was helping a friend with a construction project, he got the kids involved by having us compete to find the biggest nail and the greatest number of nails. He tricked us into helping and we had a fun time.

Sometimes at night, I would get knee aches that he called “growing pains” and he would rub my knees until I fell asleep. Once we were hiking and a slipped on some rocks and almost fell of a cliff. I screamed and David we there in a moment and pulled me back up. I thought he was like superman because he was always there when I needed him. Throughout my life, when I was very worried or upset, I knew that if I called David, he would come. I never did call him, but it gave me comfort to know that he was there.

David (who requested that we call him by his name and not is title or role), was fun-loving, had a great sense of humor, was intelligent, caring and inclusive and always up for ice cream. In the last weeks of his life, he was still smiling and still singing. He told me that I was a nice lady and he thanked me for visiting. He may not have remembered who I was, but he let me know I was appreciated. Today I really miss my father.
Tammy Parks
January 17, 2025
My father was larger than life to me growing up. He was strong and handsome, witty and playful, friendly and kind, wise and principled, instructive and solutions oriented, and gave me a sense of safety. He was a problem solver, often creating inventive solutions with whatever was available at the moment. I learned that talent from him and use it to this day. He was always in action (except for his weekend naps) and, as an athlete, enjoyed many competitive sports. I was not athletic, so I just watched and marveled at his skill and the joy he seemed to feel when playing and competing. He had many sports friends and enjoyed the camaraderie. He worked long hours in his home office writing tests and grading papers and was a fun and engaging English teacher, as many of his students shared. He was kind to people who were a different race or different from the norm and he (and our mother) taught his children to accept everyone as our equal. This lesson was deeply embedded in us, for which I am grateful. He was intellectually curious and challenged traditional beliefs. We had many philosophical discussions over the years and he was fascinated by the mystery of life, not needing to know all the answers. With divorces came sadness and a searching. He traveled the world and we reconnected from time to time over the years. When he returned from a trip to Thailand, he spent a month at my house and built a beautiful and solid shed that stands strong to this day, almost 25 years later. I think of him every time I get something from that shed. David will always be in my heart and is still guiding me as I navigate my life. He had a long, adventuresome, and full life and impacted many people along the way. He was so fortunate to find Dottie in his later years, who gave him much happiness and care.
Timi McGary
January 17, 2025
David was more important to me than my father. When my parents separated, around age 12, I spent about 10 times more time with him than with my father. He was an English teacher and appreciated literature. There was a series of best stories of XYZ year and he took them out of the library where I found them at his house when I would come by to visit. That got me interested in reading. We had an adventure with poison ivy. He was a sports nut and he and one of the Whittaker boys played on the touch football team. But he wouldn’t let me play there, I was too young and brittle, and I think he wanted to protect me. His grandmother Wray had dementia. She would stand at the front door and just curse racial and religious slurs as anybody went by. But David still took care of her, even though he disagreed with everything she stood for. I think he thought that family was more important than beliefs. I’m not sure I agree with him, but it made me think about my family differently. It made me want to take care of my mother when she was older, for example. As an English teacher, he also taught me about how to be articulate, reading and academic excellence. When I went away to college (earning a PhD in Philosophy and a law degree), I was highly prepared, mostly because of him. He was more like a father than my father was. As he began disappearing into old age and dementia, I ceased to interact with him because I felt he had already left. His wonderful partner Dottie did not think that way, and I’m so glad that she nurtured him and took care of him in his last years.
William Bortz

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