![]() The last several years especially have seen a manifestation of “the importance of.” Dave received extraordinary care and support from family and friends recently the Oxford Community Adult Day Service and lately, The Knolls of Oxford and Hospice of Cincinnati. Give it wisely and with concern for its welfare." He also wrote, “You never need to be ‘more important than….,’ but you always need to remember the “importance of….’” Remember it is your most precious possession. It will always be ready to be molded again, to be given to others, and to remain steadfast. Love is intangible, it is within you, and it's yours alone in whatever shape you build it. It will teach you sensitivity, respect, faith, constancy, strength, pliancy, and character. In a “just-in-case-I-can’t-say-it-later” letter he wrote to the kids 40 years ago, he said, "I see love as the prime mover and shaker of good so you must constantly realize the new ways that love can guide you. Family, friends, and music were important to Dave until the end because all were sources of love given and love received. A well-kept secret is that Dave was also an accomplished pianist and organist (and a less accomplished tuba player). Aside from every moment with the Oxford Choral Ensemble, a highlight was singing in Carnegie Hall with the May Festival Chorus and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. In fact, he and Kathy met in a church choir, and they sang together in many groups for many years. Dave, Kathy, and the kids were so lucky to have had a string of weekly potlucks with friends: an “after-hockey” potluck, a neighborhood potluck, and finally the beloved “Potluckers,” a group of precious friends who have nourished and sustained each other through good times and bad with weekly Wednesday potlucks since 1995, interrupted only by the COVID-19 pandemic.įrom his participation in the Mansfield, Ohio, Kleinesingers boy choir, through singing with The Ohio State University choirs, the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus, and the Oxford Choral Ensemble, to a small group of singers called Midcentury Modern, choral singing was a major part of Dave’s life. He made great friends as a goalie in what he called the Huff-and-Puff ice hockey team of older players. He took his turn as president and embraced the friendships of fellow Rotarians. Life in Oxford meant years of interesting and dear friends. He simply loved being the dad to his three children, and ultimately “GDad” to grandsons Donovan and River, and father-in-law to Jonathan McQuade and Sarah McGrew. He also loved coaching John’s soccer and ice hockey teams and teaching the kids to ski in Colorado. ![]() Sharing this experience with the kids was one of the biggest joys in Dave’s life. Dave (and occasionally Kathy) enjoyed being on stage with their children in musical theater productions with Oxford Area Community Theater. ![]() There, he and Kathy raised their three children: Suzanne (or Zan), Kate, and John. Thus began a love that would last a lifetime.ĭave set up his own veterinary practice in Oxford, Ohio, in 1974. ![]() Kathy said yes to the life of a veterinarian’s wife as she donned heavy coveralls and oversized rubber boots to travel with him across the Vermont hills, then handed over instruments while breathing through her mouth in a cavernous barn full of moaning cows until Christmas Day arrived. The proposal was interrupted by a call to a dairy farm where one hundred cows were suffering from terrible diarrhea. In addition to his private practice, Dave served as the lab animal veterinarian at Miami University and a veterinarian for the raptor rehabilitation center at Hueston Woods State Park.ĭave proposed to his wife Kathy on a snowy Christmas Eve in 1972 in Fair Haven, Vermont, where he first practiced. His veterinary care of all creatures great and small was cut short, but he cherished over three decades full of great relationships with a huge variety of animals and their caring owners. Making a home in Oxford, Ohio, and traveling far and wide was icing on an already multi-layered cake.ĭave lived with Parkinson’s Disease for his last twenty years, and Lewy Body Dementia became his primary challenge over time. But in fact, he always understood how lucky he was to be raised with sisters Jan and Margaret in a loving, generous family, and then to fulfill his early dreams of becoming a veterinarian, building his own family, having great friends, and continuing to sing whenever and wherever possible. Many would say he didn’t get enough of it, that he didn’t get to retire in good health, that he won’t travel to the next country, or won’t see his grandsons grow up. (Bay) McGrew.ĭavid loved so much about life. David was born in Medina, Ohio on Decemto Chester N. McGrew, DVM, age 76 of Oxford, died on Friday, June 23, 2023.
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