David Mouw ’64

David Mouw, age 81 died on 2-12-24 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Dave believed he had the best of lives; that never before in the history of the world.or maybe in the Universe Has a sentient creature lived in such a wonderful place. At age 40, he started saying that if he dropped dead tomorrow, he’d have nothing to complain about. So.don’t weep.he had a good run.

Dave was born 8/22/1942 in Grand Rapids, Michigan and attended Hope College in Holland, Michigan where he met Karen Voskuil; they married for life on 6/6/64 (“the best day of his life”) just after college graduation. Dave was primarily a teacher; after getting his PhD in human physiology at the University of Michigan in 1969, he taught physiology at Michigan Medical School from 1971-1981. In 1983 he completed an MD from Michigan, and after a Family Practice Residency in Yellow Springs Ohio, and obtaining additional credentials in Geriatrics, he worked as a rural family doctor/geriatrician in Robbinsville, NC from 1986-1996. His third and final 10 year career was at the MAHEC residency program in Asheville, where he taught, and provided patient care, from 1997 until his retirement in 2007.

Dave is survived by his wife Karen, his son Ted and daughter in law Sheri Mouw of Chapel Hill NC; his daughter Jean Robinson of Minneapolis, MN; 6 grand children (Arthur, Ella, Clara and Lucy of Chapel Hill; Collin and Imon of Minneapolis); and two siblings, Dirk and Sally Mouw of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Dave enjoyed lots of things: activities with Karen or his children and grandchildren, finding a wildflower, catching a fish, sleeping in a tent during a rain, finding a sea shell, reading a good quote, encouraging someone, and teaching situations of all types and ages, ranging from volunteer teaching in grade schools to retirees at the UNCA College for Seniors.

Some of Dave’s best years were: two one-year stints in Australia doing physiology research, a decade teaching the miracles of the human body to U of Michigan undergraduates, another decade teaching family practice residents at MAHEC and many years of part time volunteer work, teaching natural history to Ann Arbor and Asheville grade school children.

In lieu of flowers, etc., please make a donation to the Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) to help improve humankind’s low odds of surviving the disaster we’ve made out of this incredible and beautiful world.

Dave’s favorite author was Loren Eiseley. On his gravestone the epitaph is: “We loved the earth but could not stay”; the same applies to Dave.