David Sawyer

Weslaco-David Burr Sawyer, born in Lewiston, ME on February 15, 1923 to William H. Sawyer, Jr. and Beatrice Burr Sawyer, passed away on Thursday, February 11, 2016 at the age of 92. He attended Bates College, the University of Rhode Island, and Rutgers University earning a BS degree in Biology and an MS degree in Biological Oceanography. During WWII, he served in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Merchant Marine. Dave taught school in the Bahamas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Maine, and Connecticut. Most of his career was spent teaching biology, physical science, geology, and physics at Suffield Academy in Suffield, CT.
An avid outdoorsman, Dave loved hunting and fishing and spent many summers fishing for trout, Atlantic salmon, steelhead, and Pacific salmon species in eastern and western Canada and the Pacific Northwest. While at Suffield Academy, he developed the school’s Outing Club into the most popular extracurricular activity on campus. He and his wife Sylvia “Sib” Sawyer travelled extensively during their retirement years, finally settling in Weslaco, TX.
David is survived by his son Michael and wife Susan, and his grandchildren Ian and Gregory of Lakewood, CO and by his sister Constance Sawyer of Boulder, CO. Those wishing to honor his memory may make a donation to the charity of their choice in his name.