November 18, 1948 �" September 12, 2012
David Meade Walker, age 63, passed away peacefully at the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, due to complications from AIDS-related lymphoma.
He was born November 18, 1948, to Eugene and Joanne Walker, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He was preceded in death by his father.
He is survived by his mother, and stepfather, the Reverend George R. Bach, of Belen, New Mexico; two sisters, two brothers, two nieces, one nephew, and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins, most back home in Pennsylvania.
David grew up in and loved the Amish country, and was a 1966 graduate of Conestoga Valley High School, in Lancaster, where he excelled in art. He graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1971, where he majored in art history. He served in a non-combative capacity during the Vietnam conflict, at the Silver Lake Conference Center of the United Church of Christ in Sharon, Connecticut and Providence Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island.
From 1978 until his death, he lived in San Francisco, and was retired as a radiology technician at the UCSF hospital. He was one of the earliest to contract HIV, and was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988. His medical history, and the therapies that worked for him over the years, is amazing.
As a longtime resident of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, David was well known as an avid gardener, artist, property manager, teacher, and chef extraordinaire. His Zen-style garden behind his apartment on Page Street was enjoyed by all who looked upon it from the surrounding windows. He was a baseball enthusiast for his beloved Giants, Scrabble master, and a devotee of Emily Dickinson, amazing friends with his memorized recitations of her poems.
David brought light to all as a kind and gentle spirit, and was a fixture in the neighborhood, recognizable by his stately gait and Kangol caps.
Contributions in David's memory will be gratefully accepted at Zen Hospice Project, 273 Page Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 or http://www.zenhospice.org.