David Phillips Garretson '61

June 26,1943- November 22, 2016

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With sadness, we report the passing of David Phillips Garreston '61.

David graduated from Friends Seminary in 1961 and always had fond memories of years there and especially of Dr. Hunter. He was born in Syracuse, New York and died in New Hampshire after a lengthy struggle with cancer. In 1946 the family moved to New York City where his father joined the faculty of New York University to teach International Law, but the next year we moved to Ethiopia when he was 4.  Our father was an advisor to the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry and Emperor Haile Selassie.   

David greatly enjoyed his time in Ethiopia. He went to the Sandford School, establishing a foundation in liberal arts education, excelling in history and starting French. During these years he seems to have developed a lasting taste for travel when our family travelled extensively in Europe, once to Asia and to the United States every second year. It was probably during his Ethiopian schooling that he began to have significant problems in writing and spelling, brought on by his dyslexia, which would not be diagnosed until many years later when he was an adult.

Upon his return to New York in 1957 he spent one year at a public school, Wagner High School, before he transferred to Friends Seminary where he fit in much more comfortably, made friends (especially Larry Droutman) and again excelled in History under Dr. Hunter. He then went on to McGill University from 1961 to 1965. During most summers he worked for TWA with Reservations which gave him inside knowledge of flying and booking which he exploited for the rest of his life. The whole family went from 1963 to 1964 to London (during our father’s sabbatical) where he attended the London School of Economics. During the summer of 1964 he travelled all over Europe as well as taking a short course in Russian at Klagenfurt, Austria. After that year in London remained a Beatles fan the rest of his life, although classical music was also an important part of his life.

The following year he worked on an MA at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy to help get into the US Foreign Service, long one of his a major goals in life. He successfully took the exam and joined the Foreign Service in 1966. After training in Washington DC, he was posted first to Niamey, Niger (March 1967 to May 1968). Niger remained one of his favorite postings. It was such a small embassy that he was able to get experience in a wide variety of areas and temporarily hold quite responsible positions when those senior to him traveled or went on leave. He travelled widely in West Africa and made numerous friends and contacts, especially in the Peace Corps.

His next posting was to Saigon, Vietnam (June 1968 to October 1969), a very different and stressful assignment. He dealt mainly with passports and visas, but the daily security concerns which followed the Tet offensive made life difficult, dangerous and unpredictable. Next, he was assigned to Chang Mai, Cambodia (October 1969 to April 1970) which was, perhaps, his favorite posting. It was the only one to which he repeatedly returned and reconnected with old friends. Its slow pace and sympathetic colleagues and staff left a lasting impression.

His last overseas posting was to Fiji (April 1970 to February,1971). Here he ran into the boss from hell, which led to being posted back to Washington DC and his eventual resignation from the Foreign Service.  While appealing various findings of the State Department, David again enrolled at Fletcher and completed an MA and began thinking about doing a PhD. He toyed with the latter idea for the rest of his life, but it always remained a chimera. During his last year or so in the Foreign Service he applied to a remarkably wide variety of jobs and finally landed what he thought would be a temporary perch at the University of Maryland’s overseas program in the Far East. He would happily remain with them for over forty years until July 2015, though always dreaming of finally doing a PhD or some other more “prestigious” job.

The University of Maryland program provided him with the endless travel he so enjoyed and an ever-varying number of students, courses and topics to teach. His bread-and-butter courses were introductory economics and US government, but he created many new courses as well which engaged his endless curiosity about the culture and government of the different countries in which he ended up teaching.  These included courses on the CIA, the KGB and Korean Intelligence, African politics, US national security and many others. He always strove to be neutral and dispassionate. He was consistent throughout his life in insisting on trying hard to see as many sides as possible in any issue or argument which came before him.  This led to endless discussions on virtually every topic under the sun. David was a remarkable talker.

David taught mostly US military servicemen for Maryland at their centers in Japan and Korea, but also in Southeast Asia and in the Pacific. He started out teaching mainly in Japan (seven bases, mainly in Okinawa) and Taiwan. However, later he taught for a longer period and a in more bases in Korea than anywhere else, about fifteen. Thailand was always one of his favorite places to teach. Among other countries he also gave courses in the Philippines, Australia, Diego Garcia and Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands. He found this variety fulfilling and was perhaps happier than he had ever been before. He was a born teacher, and his students were devoted to him. He always remained a loner yet deeply devoted to his family.