I will always think of my father as the most softhearted of our family. It was not always to his advantage, and sometimes got him into trouble, but it was at the core of what made him such a special person.

Oddly two of my clearest memories of my father bookend my brief marriage many years ago.
I will always clearly see him tearing up as he took my hand to walk me down the aisle at my wedding and telling me how proud he was to be my father- not just that day, but every day. 

A few years later, I will also always remember him asking me only one question when I told my parents I needed to get a divorce : "Do you love him?" When I said no, rather than trying to talk me in our out of anything or addressing the dreary practicalities he simply said, "Well that's the right thing then, love's what matters" (It was). It took a huge burden off me, and I was grateful then as now that he had such a heart, and loved us so.

We took the family on an short overnight campout on the long trail when our children were pre-teens.  Ben had a solo tent, the girls were together in a second tent, and Dave and I shared a third one.  Dave slept in his sleeping bag wearing tee shirt and undershorts.  Unfortunately, other campers before us had left empty tuna cans in the camp fireplace.  During the night we were awakened by lots of rattling and banging of the cans against the stones of the firepit.  Andrea cried out, "There's a bear."  Dave got up, put on his hiking boots, grabbed a walking stick he had used during the previous day, and went out of the tent to see what was going on.  The bear turned into a porcupine, also unwanted in our tent site, so Dave, in his tee shirt and undershorts, proceeded to chase the porcupine several hundred feet through the woods, striking at it with his stick until the walking stick broke, leaving only about six inches of it in his hand.  He then returned to the tent, successfully having driven away the porcy.

I probably wouldn't be here without Dave, and his lovely wife, Maryjane.  You see, it was Dave and Maryjane who set up my mother and father on a blind date.  And the rest, as they say, is history.

Back in the 1950s, my father, Etienne Aberth, met Dave at MIT in Boston, where they played rugby, and studied engineering on the side.  Meanwhile, my mother, Sally Stephens, met Maryjane at Boston University.  For some reason, Dave and Maryjane (who already were dating) thought Etienne and Sally would make a good couple, and they set them up on a blind date.  At first, Cupid was not cooperative, because Etienne and Sally did not hit it off!  But soon, the wisdom of Dave and Maryjane's matchmaking bore its fruit, and a wedding took place on June 27, 1959, in Rochester, N.Y.

Attached is a photo of Dave and Maryjane toasting the happy couple, from my parents' wedding album.  Dave stood out from the crowd by wearing a white suit, the only man at the wedding to do so, as far as I can tell.  This says a lot about Dave, because it was a pretty daring thing to do, especially with all that drinking going on!  And from the picture, it seems that he managed not to spill anything on that white suit!

I'll always be thankful to Dave and Maryjane, for introducing Sally and Etienne to each other, and thus making it possible for me to be born.  From the expression on Dave's face, it's clear that he knew how to have a good time, and he makes you want to step back into the picture frame and see what all the fun was about.  When my father passed away, 26 years ago now, Dave was distraught, and now I am too at Dave's passing.  He was a great friend to my father, and a good friend to me.  He will be missed.  Travel well, Dave.

John Aberth
Roxbury, VT 

When the children were 3, 5 and 7 we made a trip to Vermont in March, encountering a snowstorm upon arriving at the mountain road.  We made it about half way up and were forced to stop due to deep snow and an unplowed road.  We parked in front of the last house, uninhabited, and settled down for the night to wait for the snowplows to come through.  There were five of us and four sleeping bags and one blanket.  Since Dave had driven all the way from Natick, I volunteered to wrap up in the blanket and sit in the driver's seat, starting the car occasionally to run the heater and take the chill off.  The next day after breakfast I needed a nap, having been up all night.  Dave decided to take the children outside to play in the snow and give me some peace and quiet.  We had an old wooden toboggan, so he trampled out a path down the gentle hill on an old logging road to make a toboggan run. 

The previous fall we had hired some work to be done on our well, which was also at the bottom of the hill a number of yards away from the road.  Unknown to us, the contractor had scooped out quite a large area, making a pond.  Several feet of snow and ice crusted over the top and hid it totally from sight.  Dave loaded all three children, and still on his snowshoes, guided the toboggan down the hill.  It picked up a little speed and got away from him.  Suddenly the toboggan, children and all, disappeared from sight.  He ran downhill on the snowshoes, and could hear the children screaming.  When close enough, he could see that the toboggan had broken through the crust on the pond, and slid under the ice into an airspace, all three children aboard. 

Without pause Dave jumped into the pond, which was waist high or higher, full of icy water.  He took each child off and threw them up out of the pond, telling them to go to the house, tell me to get a rope and come help him out.  Ben and Tina started for the house, but Andrea wouldn't leave him, and stood above the hole crying until I got there.  Meanwhile, Dave took off his gloves, put his face underwater to undo the snowshoes.  When he tried to climb the wall of the hole, the snow would just collapse.  He got the idea of wedging the snowshoes, one at a time into the wall to form a support that would hold his weight, and managed to climb out the top just as I arrived.  Ever the scientist!

I still have nightmares at times of how close I came to losing the four people I care most about, while I slept peacefully unaware.

I knew Dave for well over 20 years that spans from his time at Moog Music on Walden Ave. in Buffalo NY through all his time at AO/Reichert Technologies. Through all of this time working with Dave was a constant learning experience. He always was a great mentor and helped people get more out of themselves. I personally owe a lot to Dave for these and all his other great teaching and motivating attributes. He will be sorrily missed by me and I'm sure by meany meany others.

My first contact with Dave was while he was still running Moog Music and I worked at AO on Sugar road in Buffalo NY. This was the American Optical plant that manufactured optical microscopes along with a few ophthalmic products. Moog Music at this time had the capability to assemble electronic printed circuit board assemblies which was helpful to AO because during this time they were closing its electronic assembly division in Keene NH but AO had two new products that needed electronic assembly support.

One of these two products was a optical microscope illumination power supply, while the other a ophthalmic product used to photograph the fundus of the eye. Namely these products were the “110 Microscope” and “Docustar” fundus camera. The electronics for both of these products were manufactured by Moog Music and Dave, along with his people, was heavily involved in support from start to finish. Over the years I'm sure Dave told stores about at least one of these.

Over time AO went through changes that led to where Reichert is today. Also during this time is when I had my most important and long lived contact with Dave. It was here when he became the department head at AO and as it transformed to Reichert. During these times he was instrumental in developing many new products that include a new Non Contact Tonometer (NCT) that included a CRT display. Was a real first at the time. Under his leadership we also developed a new motorized projector, three different versions of ophthalmic chairs, and a digital lens measuring instrument. Much of these were products never before developed at AO or Reichert. For myself personally these were one of the best times to be an engineer at Reichert due to the far looking vision Dave had towards product development. Many times Dave would come into my cubical while I was working on software for a auto lens measuring product named “Lenscheck” and ask me to make changes. These changes put me in an area where I'd never been before but was able to make it happen. This was typical of Dave. He never seemed to stop thinking about any product being developed and all of his input always made a product better. Plus he got the people working on these to grow. Still today, many of these products are still working and being used.

I could recount many numerous more examples, like everyone else who worked with him could. But I think the most important impact Dave had on lives was his soft spoken way of working with you and his mentoring. He always had a way of telling you were wrong in a assumption yet making you see it yourself. Never told you outright and caused you to learn. Dave will be deeply missed by me and others. I thank God for letting me share my life with Dave Luce.

As sent to us from Mireille Clapp:

The first time Dave, Mary Jane, Phil and I were together was at an MIT dinner at Endicott House. We hit it off very well and I was amazed at how quickly the friendship developed. We invited them camping at our property in Roxbury, Vermont. It was a lovely spot but not accessible in winter. We were driving over the Roxbury Mountain Road when we saw a for sale sign at the top of the road. 45 acres for $4000 with a fantastic view. I'm not sure why we thought that was more accessible in the wintertime but anyway we did not have $4000 but then Dave and Mary Jane immediately popped in with how would you like to split it. That was the cementing of a wonderful and lifelong friendship. We decided we would build two log cabins one for each family. At the time we were living in a grand old house in Dedham in a rented top floor apartment. The owners invited me to Thanksgiving lunch which I immediately accepted and then Mary Jane invited Phil to Thanksgiving dinner which he immediately accepted. Well we had to attend both of course and that was the beginning of the amazing meals together including Wonderbread spread with butter and dipped in Dinty Moore beef stew after a hard days work while we were building the cabin. 

Dave was an amazing person.  He had very clever ideas of how to cut down logs, how to shave them, and how to put them together so there would be no big gaps. And he was always regaling us with stories of his adventures in getting to Vermont up the mountain road, as well as his fascinating music and engineering career. He never lacked for words even though he had plenty of competition from the other members of his family. Work was very important to Dave. Towards the end of his life he could not imagine being sedentary so he had a kidney transplant. And then so that he could continue working he had a cornea transplant. He left this world doing what he had to do so that he could continue to live how he had always lived - a man of fantastic skills and drive, a man of extreme kindness and love for his friends and family. It is impossible to say in words how much we will miss him.  

With love to you all,  Mireille

It's often the day-to-day seemingly mundane things that people are willing or even eager to do for others that tell you what kind of people they are.  Years ago I was in my early twenties and I injured my back. I spoke to my Dad on the phone and was very tearful because I couldn't walk across the room to even unload my laundry basket and was worried about being chronically disabled due to the severity of my pain and injury.  My dad offered to come over to help me and I said for him not to come, that nothing couldn't wait a day or so.  An hour later he shows up after a significant drive to unload my laundry basket and cheer me up.  This is typical of my father and shows his dedication to family.  He was very ambitious and loved his work but family always mattered so much to him as well. 

One of my Dad's favorite stories related to an intelligence test that Norlin Corp. administered to certain employees of Moog Music when they were seeking to appoint a new president of the company. At the end of the test, there was a question asking what animal the applicant would like to be if reincarnated and why. My father wrote that he would like to be a cockroach, and proceeded to list the many survival-attributes of cockroaches (can live a long time without water, hard to crush, quick, etc). And indeed, he got the appointment.