In Remembrance: David L. Edwards ’51 Died on November 4 2025

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David Lincoln Edwards died on November 4, 2025.  He was born in Hillah, Iraq, on November 17, 1929, the youngest of four children born to his Christian missionary parents. He lived in a palatial home on the banks of the Euphrates River until age 8, when the family returned to St. Louis, Missouri, on home leave. The outbreak of World War II prevented their return to Iraq, and instead, in 1940, they moved to Brazil, where David and his siblings attended boarding school and became fluent in Portuguese while their parents traversed the interior seeking converts.

At age 16, David embarked alone on the long journey north by air to attend Stony Brook Prep School on Long Island, before entering Yale the following year.  After graduating in 1951, he entered med school at Washington University of St. Louis, where he received his MD specializing in pathology.

David married the former Sarah Shipley of St. Louis and moved with his growing family to live briefly in New York and New Jersey, eventually settling down in  Los Angeles. Children born of the marriage were Sarah Sloan, Rebecca Todd, and David Westerman. The marriage ended in 1965.

While practicing in Los Angeles, David developed a passion for sailing, first as a crew man with friends, and then on his own 31-foot sailing ketch Azulão.  In spite of his self-described timorousness, he took a leave of absence from work at the tender age of 49, intending a round-the-world voyage. Instead, he spent more than seven years sailing halfway around the world to the easternmost reaches of the Mediterranean. He sold his boat and settled on the isle of Ischia, where he felt uniquely at home.  His self-published memoir Half Way Timorously recounts his dismasting in a storm in the Sea of Cortez, followed by his Atlantic crossing and his adventures following the path of Ulysses through the Mediterranean and the Ischia years.

Until the end of his life, David was an avid lover of classical and folk music and played the harmonica and banjo. He also enjoyed drawing, painting, and sculpting and had an active circle of artist friends in his Venice Beach neighborhood. His interest in sculpture first found expression in the ’60s with found driftwood on the beach; he worked mainly with olive wood  while living in Ischia and progressed to stone after settling in Olympia. He has been a veteran member of the Northwest Stone Sculptors Association (NWSSA) for 30 years. David continued sculpting well into his early 90s, and for his 90th birthday in 2019 he mounted a comprehensive retrospective exhibition of his most notable sculptures in wood and stone. 

In 1967 David bought a seaside cabin in Rockaway Beach, Oregon, in tribute to his late Uncle Presley‘s Knollwood property in Wisconsin, a treasured family vacation place from his youth. The Sea Shanty became a hub for gatherings, weddings, and getaways and still is his legacy piece, loved by family and friends.

In 1985 he met the love of his life, Elsa (Peggy) Bruton,  whom he married in 1991, the year they left Italy and moved to Olympia. They were intellectual equals who were passionate about each other, the environment, and social justice, and they never shied away from a good argument.  A lifelong liberal, David was consistently active in local Democratic politics, the art community, and, most recently, his beloved Celtic music group. He advocated early on for decriminalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes, marched against wars, and even recently attended the “No Kings” protests.

David is survived by his beloved wife, Peggy Bruton; three children: Sarah Sloan, Rebecca Todd, and David Westerman; three grandchildren: Jessica, Van, and Max; and four great-grandchildren: Wolf David, Opal Mae, Ashton, and Ellie. 

The family requests that any tributes or remembrances be in the form of gifts to your favorite environmental protection or social justice organization, candidate, or cause.

—Submitted by the family.