Dave Z

I first met Dave in 1968 while I was stationed in Yokohama, Japan. We were both stationed at North Pier where water-borne cargo came and went for the US Army, and other users, in Japan. My family's household goods, shipped from South Carolina, came to Japan through that port and six years later when I was transferred to Seattle, our household goods left Japan through that port.

Dave held a transportation MOS (Military Occupation Specialty) and my MOS was in the administrative field. We worked in the same Directorate and shared a common boss, a Transportation Lieutenant Colonel who was on a twilight tour, as they sometimes called the last tour of duty before retirement.

Dave and I hit it off as friends and spent a great deal of time together. We enjoyed several fishing trips and one memorable trip had us traveling around the Chiba Peninsula staying at B&B's and fishing at noted fishing places.

At that time the University of Maryland offered classes in the evenings and Dave and I attended some together. We enjoyed the intellectual discussions and I think we learned as much from each other as we did from the professors.

Time has a way of moving along and Dave and I experienced the changes brought by the passage of time. I applied for and was accepted to the Army degree completion program and attended Sophia University in Tokyo full time for a couple years and Dave and his family moved on also. But even though separated physically, we kept in contact with the occasional letter (in those days before email) and Christmas card.

When I was traveling through California I stopped at their house when they lived in Concord and later my wife and I visited them after they moved to Lake Tahoe. Ten or twelve years ago Dave and Fumiko visited us in Seattle and we vowed to get together more often. But distance and time conspired against us and we shared only the occasional short visit.

Fumiko and Dave during a visit to Tahoe in July 2012

Just because we didn't get to see each other physically didn't mean we couldn't continue our friendship via mail and then email and, of course, the occasional phone call. The last time I talked with Dave, about a month ago, he was telling me all the details of the new dialysis procedure that he was undergoing and he sounded as sharp as ever.

Last night I got a call from an New York area code. Almost didn't answer since I figured it was a sales call. It turned out to be one of Dave's sons giving me the sad news that his father had passed away the night before.

Dave and I were friends for many years and, of course, I was saddened by the news of his passing. That sadness was tempered by the happy times we had shared. We didn't always view the world from the same perspective but I accepted and appreciated his viewpoints and he reciprocated when it came to mine.

I wish Dave's family well. May his sons and their families carry on his tradition of open-minded investigation of the world. I'll always appreciate the fact that Dave never discriminated against me just because I was white. I think he understood, as we all should, the world can be a better place when there is mutual acceptance, or at least tolerance, of other people.