David Shedd Easton, age 75, passed away on Sunday, February 13th in Waterville, Maine. He was born on September 29, 1947, at Jane Case Hospital in Delaware, Ohio.
He attended Hayes High School from 1961–1965 during which time he excelled on the Debate Team and the Swim Team. He was Class President his Sophomore Year and was also an Eagle Scout.
At Eckel’s Lake on Pollock Rd. in Delaware David was quite the star as he crossed the quarry on the traveling rings. People stood transfixed as he gracefully performed beautiful dives from the high dive as well as 1½ and 2½ flips to dives.
He went on to attend Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio where he majored in philosophy and took his Junior Year abroad in Tubingen, Germany.
He received his Conscientious Objectors status and served at the Massachusetts Institute for Mental Health. He went on to get his master’s degree in Journalism at University of Texas at Austin. Then he became Editor of the Minnesota Mental Health Newsletter.
He was married to Carol Jean Oberg for thirty years. They lived for many years in Waterville, Maine. Carol was an Emergency Room nurse.
David lived above the Bob-In bar in Waterville for the last 8 years of his life. When Bob-In was sold, the writer, Doug Harlow, wrote an article about it. He described David as a “philosopher, confessor, and psychotherapist” for the bar’s smoking lounge, which had a separate entrance to the bar. He went on to describe David as “a published poet and one-time journalist.” Mr. Harlow explained that David kept a baseball bat handy in the event he encountered burglars. David is pictured below with that bat.
David spent many summers in Maine, in Little Deer Isle on the Penobscot Bay. He loved it there, as many in his family did. David and his siblings and cousin’s water skis around Pumpkin Island on the Eggemogin Reach.
David is survived by his sisters, Carol Easton of Tampa, Florida, Judith Easton of Chicago, Illinois, and Anne Lundin of Madison, Wisconsin. And his cousins Lynn Simonds of Torrington, Conn, Dale Whitesell of McLean, Virginia, Betty Anne Shedd of Duxbury, Massachusetts, Deborah Wohlert of Quincy, Florida, John Shedd of Texas and Andy Shedd of Portland, Maine. Also, his Aunt Shirley MacLeod of Yarmouth, Maine. And his beloved cousin Mark Daniel Shedd who still lives on Deer Isle.
