David Paul McIntire Obituary (1943 - 2011)

Born Mar 13, 1943, David Paul McIntire attended New Oxford High School in New Oxford, PA. View the obituary, post a memory, or share a photo about David Paul Mcintire.

Graduation Year	Class of 1961
Date of Birth	Mar 13, 1943
Date of Passing	Jul 06, 2011
About	David McIntire, son of the late Paul and Marguerite McIntire, passed from this life on July 6, 2011. He grew up in New Chester, Pa, 10 Miles from Gettysburg. The first in his family to graduate college, he attended the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, a few years ahead of another non-catholic country boy, Bill Clinton. He took the Peace Corps training and found it lacking. This was during the Vietnam era and he enlisted in the Army rather than being drafted and served two years in Germany in Elvis Presley's old unit. Afterwards he spent a year touring by van with two buddies, from Germany to Greece and Eastern Europe. Returning to Washington, he worked for Burroughs Business Machines as a salesman. Dave and his wife Elizabeth moved to Columbia Heights and became involved in advocating for the development of 14th Street and the preservation of the Tivoli Theatre. Fascinated by the then new computer technology, David taught himself and created a Columbia Heights website which with a history and pictures, oral history interviews, archive of press articles, list of neighborhood resources, and interactive features including a listserve, gave a more positive view of the area than was prevalent at the time. David loved to read. That was the first thing he asked of his first teacher:"Teach me to read" . When he discovered an interest, he pursued and researched it thoroughly; Amazon.com was a beneficiary of his curiosity. He was a do-it-yourself guy, from photography, to carpentry, to botany, to community organizing, to computer applications, to geneology. Of course he loved the internet, with its almost limitless resources and ease of communication. He honed his concise email style on a creationist discussion board, becoming identified by some as "The Mcintire". As a carpenter, he built to last. Future renovators will have to use bombs to remodel. As an amateur botanizer before PC's and databases, he amassed index cards of all plants he had identified, with location and date, and laboriously transcribed them into a memory typewriter. As an activist, he was relentless in pointing out the shortcomings of planning decisions based on political connections . Some may remember the first protest demonstration of community outrage when the new Mayor Williams was pursued around Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park, and the larger event coinciding with the opening of the Columbia Heights and Petworth Metro stations. David was among the group of volunteers which conceived and operated the first Columbia Heights Community Marketplace on the then vacant lot at 14th & Irving Sts, and he was its unofficial photographer; his photos underline the community aspect of the name. His most recent passion, geneology, led him to create the website McIntires.info, and to expand its focus from family to include history of the Scot-Irish. He found that his willingness to challenge authority might be in his genes. David loved road trips and exploring the gravel roads of the Virginia and WV National Forests, where there are ample secluded camping opportunities. After years of roughing it and idle musing about a country home, the opportunity presented itself and David became a landowner in Hardy County West Virginia, nestled up against the George Washington National Forest and near the beautiful Lost River Valley. And then he understood how much he had been missing the quiet peace of the country and nature up close, since his youth. David improved the property by opening up the living space in the cabin, a new roof, and tank-resistant decks. He contended with winter plumbing crises, and witnessed and escaped a mountain tornado that spared the house and car while toppling twelve mature oak trees. He joked that he practices natural gardening, leaving the weeds and wildflowers be (except Burdock and rose), and proudly pointed out this year's crop of jewelweed and thistle. He has welcomed city friends and family , and hoped to retire there. The physical isolation was ameliorated by an internet connection and netflix. Those who know him know he was a gentle generous compassionate soul, slow-talking but a hardy thinker(Jesuit university).