David Wismar Herman was born December 5 1946 to Louis Martin Herman and Olga Dorothy (Wismar) in Saint Louis Missouri. His parents resided in South Saint Louis city and he attended Epiphany Lutheran Church with them. David graduated from Cleveland High School and acquired a liberal arts degree at Saint Johns College in Annapolis, Maryland. He established life-long friendships through both schools and often recalled his exploits in street football and Johnnie vs. Middie croquet at St Johns.

After experiencing life in New York City, Chicago and the wilds of Maine, David returned to Saint Louis and began work at Defense Mapping Agency in 1983. David aspired to and attained mid-level bureaucracy with rumpled tweed and bow-tied fashion as a systems programmer and Y2K solutions man. David enjoyed bread making, preparing rosemary rotisseried pork loin and stir fry. He lived at risk-consuming Julia Child’s “The Way to Cook”- reposed in pre-drowse reading. David turned regularly to his Norton Anthology of Poetry, quoting Chaucer, and sometimes A.A. Milne or Rilke. He loved theology and dreamed to hang out at Concordia Seminary in University City.

Always the perfect gentleman, he was a reflection of his father Louis and mother Olga, polite even in the deepest stages of his verbal tangles. David was a devoted carer, bringing Weaver-our dog, back from his multiple strokes, and coddling his puppy Kleine Bruno- (Destroyer of Worlds, See Him and Weep). And how can his morning deliveries of fresh brewed coffee latte in bed be overlooked?

David traveled with family and friends. He adored “Camp” on the Tahquamenon River in Michigan and travels to Europe with college buddy Craig Freedman, with Laura to England and Japan, or simply hosting John Morse and Kurt Schulz for armchair travels of the philosophical and theological. David was kind and soft handed, sometimes nicking himself with sharp knives in his vegetable chopping mantra of “good food made well and displayed for the eye”.

After retirement from government work in 2002, he became prudent and drew back on activities when driving meant losing his way and the stove was abandoned left on or when the microwave became an operational challenge. We are all fortunate and grateful his impaired cognition caused him to adopt prudence over anger and denial. We are all blessed that he sustained good humor and moments of delight.

David passed away peacefully on June 22, 2017 at the Dolan Memory Care Home.

Preceding him in death were his grandparents, aunts, uncles, mother and father and his mother-in-law and father-in-law Ruth and William Moore of Elsie Michigan. He leaves to cherish his memory: his loving wife Laura Moore; sister Judith Roeder and brother-in-law David Roeder of Webster Groves, Missouri; sister-in-law and brother-in-law Sharlyn (Moore) Huyck and Douglas of Owosso, Michigan, sister-in-law and brother-in-law Jacqulyn (Moore) and Wayne Spillner of Leland, North Carolina; and nephew Jeffrey Spillner of Columbus, Ohio.

A Celebration of Life will he held on Thursday, July 6, 2017 at 1:30 P.M. at Christ Church, United Church of Christ, 2200 Bellevue Avenue, Maplewood, Missouri 63143. Reverend Luke Schmalz of Hope Hospice will be the officiating eulogist. His ashes will be buried at Riverside Cemetery in Elsie Michigan following a memorial service thereat a later date. Services provided by Smith Family Funeral Homes in Elsie Michigan, supported by St. Louis Cremation. We ask any donations go to Saint Louis University Brain Bank in honor of David Herman (www.slu.edu/give-slucare)