Middlebury Magazine

  • Recent Stories
  • Menu
    • Features
    • Pursuits
    • Q&A
    • Editor’s Note
    • Old Chapel
    • Road Taken
    • Review
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • How Did You Get Here Series
    • About
    • Advertising
    • Contact
    • Support
    • Writers’ Guidelines
  • Search

Fall 2017 Old Chapel

Remembering David Mittelman ’76

Middlebury lost a good friend recently, though his memory will live on.

By Laurie L. Patton
Illustration by Montse Bernal
October 26, 2017
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • Email icon

I like to talk about “Middlebury Moments”—those moments I’ve experienced in my time as president that best exemplify Middlebury’s values and character.

There are also “Middlebury People”—men and women who live what it means to be Middlebury, and who help us be even better at who we are.

Dave Mittelman ’76 was one of those Middlebury People, and his memorial service in Boston on September 28 was one of those Middlebury Moments. The room, set for 350, was packed, with several people standing outside listening. Speaker after speaker spoke to his extraordinary qualities—of curiosity, caring, and inspiring positivity even in the face of a difficult diagnosis.

Dave embodied so much of what makes Middlebury such a uniquely enduring and meaningful institution. He was an alumnus who delighted in sharing his story of how he got kicked off the soccer team rather than cut his long hair to conform to the coach’s early 1970s sartorial standards. He was a parent of three Middlebury graduates, Andrew ’08, Jamie ’10, and Melissa ’13. He was a passionate lifelong learner, a devoted husband to his wife, Michelle, and a dedicated and highly engaged trustee. He was curious, intelligent, ambitious, grounded, competitive, compassionate, mindful, and deliberate.

His deep curiosity and intellect meant that he was always hungry for more knowledge—about situations, problems to be solved, ideas to be considered, facts to be learned. One of the great scientists he admired, the astronomer Johannes Kepler, wrote, “The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great, and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment.” That idea that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment is such a Dave Mittelman idea—and such a Middlebury idea too.

Dave’s mind was never lacking in fresh nourishment, and he made sure Middlebury was not either. An amateur astronomer, he brought his love of the study of the universe to Middlebury, and opened the heavens up to our students, faculty, and the greater Middlebury community. He endowed the P. Frank Winkler Professorship in Physics, honoring the professor emeritus who joined the faculty in 1969, and he helped fund significant upgrades to the College’s observatory, including renovating the telescope in 2015.

Galileo said, “All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered. The point is to discover them.” What Dave discovered was considerable, both in the stars and in his career. For 22 years, he was a brilliant partner, director, and senior vice president of Harvard Management Company, the firm that manages Harvard University’s endowment. Dave brought his considerable financial acuity to the Middlebury Board of Trustees, on which he served from 2008 to 2017. He also served on the board of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and was an advisor to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Like Galileo, Dave believed in discovering truths for the purpose of understanding them. Whether those truths were in finances, or in his observations of the heavens, or in how he lived his daily life, or his relationship to Middlebury, he committed himself to fully, and mindfully, cultivating understanding, and also wonder.

While Dave was not someone who used the word “god” very often, he had a deep sense of the sacred, and a profound sense of wonderment. I could sense that the sacred light of the stars was always teaching him, that it was just underneath the surface, and in the pauses we sometimes experienced when we talked together.

Losing a friend is never easy. Losing a friend like Dave, which we did on May 23 of this year, less than nine months after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, has been profoundly difficult. Middlebury lost a great friend, and the Mittelman family lost the husband, father, and guiding star they shared with us.

Dave gave back to Middlebury in ways that allow us to give forward to students, present and future. He was a model of what it means to be a Middlebury Person, one of the innumerable and invaluable people who have helped bring us to where we are today.

To honor him, this past spring the College named the observatory, which hosts more than 1,000 visitors each year to open house stargazing and other events, for him. We will remember him, in large and small ways, especially when we ascend to the top of Bicentennial Hall, enter the Mittelman Observatory, and ask new questions of the stars.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent Stories

Features

Reverberations

A transcontinental move, a career discovered, a landmark speech studied and translated—and an identity reshaped.

By Clara Clymer, MA Translation '22
Illustration by Anna Gusella
April 2, 2022

The Road(s)

A little over a year ago, a writing student headed south to Florida for no other reason than J-Term was forced to go remote. She soon found herself reporting on an environmental justice battle that was roiling the state.

By Alexandra Burns '21.5
Illustrations by Yevgenia Nayberg
March 2, 2022

Cult Fiction

With absurdist, yet endearing dramedies dominating popular culture, a couple of recent Midd grads have added a new title to the canon with the wonderful Youtube series The Deli People.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photographs courtesy of L.T. Stenello Productions
February 4, 2022
Abstract illustration of a person with correspondence letters floating in the wind surrounding them.

Dear Friends . . .

On writing through grief.

By Bianca Giaever ’12.5
Illustration by Nicole Xu. Photographs by Paul Dahm
May 11, 2021

Dispatches

It’s a New Day at the Museum of Art

Reimagining what an art museum can and should be.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Art courtesy of the Middlebury College Museum of Art
June 30, 2022

First Aid

Their projects span the globe—from Kenya to Haiti to the United States. As the 2021-22 academic year came to a close, a cohort of students gathered to discuss what having a social impact really means.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Illustration by Brian Stauffer
June 28, 2022

The Case of the Purloined Onions

Onions have been disappearing from Middlebury's garden. Now, a team of undergraduate sleuths are honing in on a lineup of suspects.

By Andrew Cassel
Illustration by Naomi Ann Clarke
June 21, 2022

Sonic Art

What began as an attempt by Matthew Evan Taylor to collaborate with fellow musicians during the isolation of the pandemic ended up being a yearlong project that culminated in an evening performance at the Met.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photograph by Josiah Bania
April 15, 2022

Poetry, In Exile

After fleeing civil unrest in her native Venezuela, a Middlebury Institute graduate student turned to poetry to help make sense of it all.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustrations by Anonymous
January 21, 2022

Inside the Ant Chamber

A visit to a Bi Hall lab affords an up-close encounter with an extremely social cohort of insects.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Clint Penick
November 12, 2021

Twenty Minutes, Twenty Years

Reflections on 9/11 as a New Yorker and Muslim American.

By Daleelah Saleh '23
Illustration by Davide Bonazzi
September 23, 2021

It’s in the Wash

Moyara Ruehsen separates fact from creative fiction in the world of criminal finance.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Elena Zhukova
September 9, 2021

From Stage to Screen

Doug Anderson has plenty of experience directing opera. But with his latest production, he faced new and unusual challenges.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Photograph by Erica Furgiuele
September 2, 2021
View All

Pursuits

Public Defender

On becoming one of the country's foremost cybersecurity experts.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustration by Neil Webb
April 14, 2022

Q&A

The Making of a Teacher

Hebrew Professor Michal Strier reflects on her life an education—in Israel and the States—a journey that led the Language School instructor to the undergraduate College for the first time this year.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Paul Dahm
May 19, 2022

Editor’s Note

A Brilliant Fogg

Saying goodbye to a dear colleague and friend.

By Matt Jennings
Illustration by Jody Hewgill
February 25, 2020

Old Chapel

Wired for Service

Examining the myriad ways Middlebury students and alumni continue to engage in an enduring tradition: giving back to others.

By Laurie L. Patton
Illustration by Montse Bernal
November 11, 2021

Road Taken

What to Wear Now

Through accrued life experiences, a writer discovers that a common question has become a statement of identity.

By Samantha Hubbard Shanley ’99
Illustration by Naomi Clarke
March 11, 2021

Quotation

A summer immersed in a language can do wonders, as veterans of Middlebury College’s famous language-learning program can attest. The lockdown is clearly going to amount to the equivalent of about two summers, and there are mini-Middleburys happening in millions of houses worldwide.”

—John McWhorter, writing “The Coronavirus Generation Will Use Language Differently” in the Atlantic.

Podcasts

Alone Together, Ep. 9 with Jessica St. Clair ’98 and Dan O’Brien ’96

Dan O'Brien ’96, a playwright and poet, and Jessica St. Clair ’98, a comedian and writer, join President Patton for our final check in with the community during COVID-19 self-isolation. Dan and Jessica are a true power couple in the arts that met in a Middlebury improv group. They discuss Dan's magazine essay "Life Shrinks: Lessons from Chemo Quarantine," how reopening the country feels a lot like remission, and how their art is evolving to reflect the pandemic.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 15, 2020

Alone Together, Ep. 8 with Dick Clay, Covid-19 Survivor

In this episode, Dick Clay, a student at the Bread Loaf School of English, shares his story of recovering from COVID-19. Dick discusses when the seriousness of the virus hit him, the "wilderness path to recovery," and how he will process this experience through writing.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 8, 2020

Alone Together, Ep. 7 with Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin, Essential Workers

In this episode, we hear from Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin, who have been working with custodial services to keep our Vermont campus safe and clean. Jodie and Jacque share what campus has been like since the students left: what it's like to schedule hourly sanitation of buildings, how every day feels like an empty Saturday morning, and that the infamous Middlebury squirrels have lost a bit of weight.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
Photography by Bob Handelman
June 1, 2020

Review

One Life’s Journey

Accomplished poet Robert Pack reflects on his life in his new book of poetry.

By Susan Fritsch Hunter ’71
Photography from Event Horizon Telescope: Hotaka Shiokawa
June 2, 2022

How Did You Get Here?

Megan Job

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Leif Taranta

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Mikayla Haefele

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Videos

Pomp and Unusual Circumstances

As viewed from above.

By Chris Spencer
June 1, 2021

Davis the Owl Returns Home

Having recovered from life-threatening injuries, a beautiful winged creature is released to its natural habitat.

By Andrew Cassell
April 22, 2021

In the Blink of an Eye

Gone in less than a minute—the middle of June 2019 to the middle of June 2020, as viewed from the rooftop of the Mittelman Observatory.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
Video by Jonathan Kemp/Mittelman Observatory
June 10, 2020
Middlebury College
  • Alumni
  • Newsroom
  • Contact Us
  • icon-instagram

The views presented are not necessarily those of the editors or the official policies of the College.

© 2022 Middlebury College Publications.