David Carl Nelson (“Dave”) passed away December 7, 2010 at age 51, in Masan, South Korea.
Dave was born on October 22, 1959 of Gerald (Jerry) Nelson and Kathryn Fuller Nelson, former long time residents of Reddings Beach Loop off of Wax Orchards Road on Vashon. Dave is survived by his wife, Maria P. de los Reyes, of Mountlake Terrace, WA. Maria and Dave formerly resided on Vashon. Dave is also survived by his mother, Mrs. Kathryn M. Nelson of Puyallup, WA; parents-in-law Don and Susan de los Reyes of Mountlake Terrace, WA; siblings, George A. Nelson and Jerry J. Nelson of Vashon; and Cheri Nelson Clarke and her husband, Ray Clarke, of South Hill, WA; brother-in-law Manny de los Reyes of Mountlake Terrace, WA; sister-in-law Nelia de los Reyes, of Lake Forest Park, WA; nieces Paula Cottingham Grant and her husband, David Grant, of Tacoma, WA and Sara Cottingham Cotton and her husband, Keith Cotton, of Winston Salem, North Carolina; his nephew, Blaine A. Nelson of Vashon. Grandnieces and grandnephews Colton, Tiffini, and Zoey Grant, and Jordan Johnson and Jaeden Cotton also survive their Granduncle Dave. Dave is also survived by his best buddies since childhood, Mike Lande of Lande’s Corner on Vashon and Brian Roggenbuck of Darrington, WA. Dave was preceded in death by his Dad, Jerry J. Nelson who passed away in 1971.
Dave attended Burton School on Vashon and was a 1978 graduate of Vashon High School. At Vashon High he played for the Vashon Pirates in the freshman football and basketball teams, and the tennis and baseball teams in his sophomore and junior years. He was a graduate of the University of Washington where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. He later pursued post-baccalaureate studies from Seattle University where he earned a teaching certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL); Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Second Language and a Master of Arts in English both from La Salle University.
Dave’s childhood on Vashon was lived with walks in and visits to makeshift forts in the woods off of Reddings Beach Loop; in the waters of Reddings Beach; in Tok Otsuka’s strawberries fields as a picker; and in the canning kitchen of Wax Orchards for which the important daily mission was to keep the screen doors shut so that the summer flies don’t enter the kitchen and get stuck in the vats of jam! Dave was a member of the Vashon Cub Scout Pack 275 where he learned the basic skills of outdoor safety from building a fire without a match or lighter, negotiating hiking trails, and navigating with a compass. Dave played little league baseball for the Bakers, a team sponsored by Lloyd’s Bakery which was part of Kimmel’s Grocery Store. In pony league Dave played for the Trojans. In his childhood he completed gun safety training from the Vashon Sportsmen’s Club from where he learned to respect the handling of guns. As adults, from time to time, together with his buddies Mike Lande and Brian Roggenbuck, Dave is known to have engaged in target practices on the Lande field.
To Dave the gifts of life were found in the simple and ordinary: JP Patches and the Swami of Pastrami; long walks; music; cold beer; a hearty casserole. Dave loved a good discussion, and was often sought as a sounding board for his nature as a good listener, his level head, and honesty in expressing his views. For some this meant a figurative knocking of one’s head when necessary. His laid-back and unassuming nature possessed a great sense of humor, usually revealed in quick and witty comebacks with deadpan delivery, perfect timing, and not-so-bad impersonations. Dave was an avid reader; a reader of all sorts of genres and savored the bigger world into which books brought him —- floating down the Mississippi River with Tom Sawyer and Huck Fin; living on a tropical desert island with Robinson Crusoe; and running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. With books, he imagined himself in adventurous settings. He loved the outdoors and hiked the trails along the Cascades and Olympic mountain ranges and took long walks daily. With photography as one of his hobbies, he captured in photographs the beauty of nature, people, and the cultural practices he encountered in his travels and at home. Dave was always himself and didn’t try to be anyone else. In borrowing from Popeye the Sailor Man he has said of himself, “I yam
what I yam.”
Whether through the influence of his readings or whether by natural design, Dave was a person with wanderlust, a nature that so evidently marked him. For Dave, that meant heeding the call of the world outside the confines of Vashon and Seattle. He taught in South Korea as a devised means of striking the balance between being able to travel and earning a living enough to responsibly see and experience the world, yet fulfilling the obligation to home. Teaching overseas brought him the cultural immersion he desired. It brought him proximity to the places to which he wanted to see and experience among which are the Great Wall of China, the Mekong River at Laos and Vietnam, a hike to an active volcano in Indonesia, and deep sea diving in the waters off of Phuket, Thailand. During breaks between academic quarters, Dave made use of those times for his travels.
His love for teaching was discovered accidentally. As a means of earning a salary while heeding his call to traverse the world, he learned that if he taught English overseas he can responsibly travel. He worked for either or both English and Foreign Language Departments at various universities in South Korea beginning in 1996 when he was hired in Kyungbuk Province to teach native Korean teachers how to teach English. His length of employment at each university usually depended on his itchy-feet to switch to a new university to experience a new city or town or country. The last school in which he taught at the time of his death was Kyungnam University in the city of Masan in South Korea. He enjoyed teaching; in particular, he enjoyed teaching young adults. It gave him a rush to teach and to be with young people. He has said, more than anything, what he wanted to give his students is confidence. In that confidence, his hope is that they would at least attempt, even if poorly, to speak and write the English language. Teaching overseas enabled him to be, when necessary, creative with his approach to teaching and to teach with autonomy from standardized procedures, yet he implemented effective techniques in second language acquisition. He was consistently described by his students as an active, animated, and energetic teacher.
Outside of his duties in teaching, he also served in various academic commissions and committees in South Korea to help advance English as a second language. He served as one of the regular judges in an annual English speech competition in the city of Daegu. In recent years he worked collaboratively with native English speaking teachers in South Korean universities in designing and teaching courses such as Modern Media in English, Academic Reading Theory, and English Conversation for Modern Medicine Majors. In the latter, the design of that class called for the partial function of the class as a forum for English discussions on medical ethics. At the time of his death he was serving on a committee formed to design a course in comparative methods on teaching future Korean teachers how to teach English writing. At the closing weeks of this past autumn quarter at Kyungnam University, Dave passed away in his sleep on December 7, 2010 of pneumonia.
A Memorial service for Dave was held at the Funeral Hall of Masan Yonsei Hospital in Masan, Gyeongsang, South Korea on December 16, 2010 and a Memorial Mass at St. Alphonsus Catholic Church in Seattle on January 8, 2011. A celebration of and tribute to his life followed that Mass. Dave was laid to rest on February 5, 2011 in a private celebration of the Rite of Commendation at his graveside in Holyrood Catholic Cemetery in Shoreline, WA.
Paid Obituary.
