|
WORCESTER, MASS. — David Stewart Habercom passed away on July 17, 2018 of complications from heart failure.
Born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee to the late Guy and Nell Habercom, he attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and graduated from Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. He later received a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. He was an English professor for ten years at Delta Community College in Michigan. Later, he worked as a free-lance writer in Knoxville, Tennessee, and for the University of Tennessee. He moved to Lowell, Massachusetts in 2014 to pursue a career in photography, which had been a lifelong passion. He loved the artist communities in both Lowell and Worcester, where he had resided for the past two years. He was a gifted photographer and an evocative writer.
He leaves behind one brother, Mark, and a sister-in-law, Susan, of Decatur
|
Bob Thomas
From Tinsley " Gene" Yarbrough:
David had a tremendous wit. He attended Antioch College, at that time an extremely liberal campus in the 'nawth.' One day I received a packet from David in the mail. When I opened the package in the student union, I found a large poster headed "NAACP Registration Table" and other materials for organizing a campus chapter. Especially in those days, Alabama was hardly hospitable to the NAACP, and when I noticed several hard-eyed students staring at the poster, I beat a hasty retreat back to the relative safety of my dorm room. I believe I sent David Klan recruitment materials in exchange. A great guy. I hate I didn't get to spend more time with him after graduation.
Richard Allen
As Gene said, David was one of the good, smart guys in our class. One day, as seniors we were discussing college and David said he was going to a small college in Ohio I had never heard of that I remembered over the years as being Oberlin, but turned out to be Antioch--six of one, half dozen of the other, I think.
In that conversation, he also told me that his real name was David von Haberman-Chubb, but the family had just used the shorter version for some reason. To this day, I do not know if he was using his well know wit to fool a simpleton, or if it was true. Today, I looked it up on the web, and found that a man named Haberman-Chubb died in Decatur in 1895, so I guess he was being truthful. Still do not know why he shared that with me. I never saw David after graduation, but I thought of him every time I heard something about Oberlin College. RFA
Scott Johnson
David went to Antioch in Ohio, with its work/study program. I went to Indiana University & we exchanged a few letters our freshman year. Then in 1961 or '62 he wrote me, "I've gone to Mars! Coffee only five cents here." And it was true, sort of. One of his work semesters was in Mars Hill, south of Indianapolis. I drove up & we had several nickel cups of coffee. Then we completely lost touch. About 20 years ago, I did a Google search for "David Habercom," and came up with several references to a daredevil hang glider in Switzerland. Then, years later, a similar search led to a gallery show in Atlanta of photo portraits of homeless people in Knoxville, Tennessee. There was a link; I clicked, and it was him. He told me that he was also the daredevil hang glider guy, but he stopped risking his neck when he re-invented himself as a photographer. We exchanged emails again shortly after he moved to the Boston area, and there was a lot of stuff we wanted to catch up on. This is a bummer. He was a good friend.
Douglas Ann Thrasher (Livingston . )
I HAVE JUST NOTICED THE PASSING OF DAVID.AND SO SORRY THAT I DIDNT KNOW SOONER. DAVID WAS ALWAYS A GOOD GUY. HIS MOTHER. NELL, WAS ALSO MY FRIEND AS I KNEW THEM SINCE GRAMMER SCHOOL. SEEMS LIKE OUR YEARS OF GROWING UP, EVERYONE KNEW EACH OTHER AND THEIR FAMILIES. DAVID WAS SMART AND HAD A MIND OF HIS OWN. I LOVED UP HIS PHOTOS ON THE COMPUTER YEARS AGO AND WAS SURPRISED THAT HE WAS INCLUDING THIS AS ONE OF HIS MANY TALENTS. IT IS A BLESSING TO BE ABLE TO SAY THAT DAVID WAS MY FRIEND AND CLASSMATE. I PRAY THAT MARK AND HIS FAMILY WILL FEEL GODS COMFORT AND PEACE.
Larry Durham
Thirteen years ago, my wife, Anne (nee Anne Stimson, Joe's sister), and I were on a tour of Switzerland and caught this shot of a hang glider at dusk near Charmey in the Gruyère region. When we read the account of David's most interesting life and learned from Scott Johnson's comments that some years ago he had discovered a "daredevil hang glider in Switzerlad" by the same name, we instantly thought about this photo. So, even though it's highly unlikely that it was David, we thought that he would appreciate such a tribute and that many of you would enjoy it and even get a laugh out of it. With the sense of humor that I recall his having back at DHS, I'd wager that he'd probably claim that this was actually him!
While our paths never crossed after graduation, the diversity of things in which David had been involved acorss the years was reinforcing to read since I, too, have had a very diverse career road -- interesting, but diverse. I remember David at DHS as I do so many of you who were always friendly and uplifting. While some might have thought the picture of David that was posted in the obit to be a bit odd, I liked it because it telegraphed to me the happy, fun-loving person I remember and always will.
Blessings on you all. Enjoy the photo and just imagine that it really is David! May we each enjoy life as much as he did.
Larry
Bob Thomas