From Eli Yarborough

It’s impossible for me to encapsulate everything I want to say about my dad. He had so many amazing qualities and taught me nearly everything I now know about what it means to be a good man. So let me break down a few of his very best qualities and how he exemplified them in his life. 

• Patience

My dad was one of the most patient people I’ve ever know. As many of you know, he and my mom have been together for 52 years. But not married for all 52… After many many many rebuffed marriage proposals, my mom finally relented (with a little help from baby Zoe). My dad always saw the value in waiting for the things that mattered the most.

• Honesty/Virtue 

Every single day -with out fail- before I left for school my dad would tell me: do your best. He must have said that to me 5000 times. As a kid, I didn’t really understand what that meant. Of course, I knew what the literal words meant, but it wasn’t until much much later that I finally understood what he was actually saying. 

My dad did not grow up with much. He worked extremely hard to provide a better life for us. He knew life could be difficult. 

Doing your best meant showing up for people you care about. Being honest when it would be easier to lie. Putting in the effort to make someone else’s day better. And that, just like patients, nothing worthwhile in life is ever easy.

• Curiosity and Humility 

I’m sure all of you know my David’s incessant love of travel and learning. We have taken some legendary trips as a family and enjoyed the fruits of his fastidious passion for planning every detail of each trip. As if we needed any more entertainment in the amazing exotic places we traveled, Zoe and I found endless humor in our dad’s eccentricities. Some highlights include: 

Using cardinal directions and the metric system when describing where we’re going. This would look like: the castle is 2000 meters north west. As if we knew what that meant.

Taking on other people’s accents, depending on where in the world we were. This led to many hilariously awkward interactions with servers while ordering wine in Germany or a steak in London.

And finally, always always shaking peanut m&ms in his hand before eating them.

For all we poked fun at him, he would always just shrug and say “one day someone you love will point out something that you do and you’ll smile and remember these times”. A true example of humility and never taking himself too seriously.

As massive as this loss is, I’d like to end on a positive note. Few people make an impact on this world quite the way my father has. As I look out at all the friends and family gathered here to celebrate my dad’s life, I can’t help but think of how much he truly improved the lives of everyone around him. From his patience to his humility curiosity wisdom and yes, even, his eccentricities I know he left this world truly better than he found it. And so, as we all go out and on with our lives I hope we will remember the words and example david set and that we might do our best to improve this world with the same passion, empathy and love as my dad did.