“HERE HE IS – DAVID STROUPE”

About a decade ago, David and Erin and Emma and Zoe were visiting us for the Christmas holiday.  It was one of those weird Atlanta and Southern Christmas seasons when the weather was warm enough to spend lots of time outside.  In this particular holiday, David and Emma and Zoe went out in the backyard to turn over rocks and look in the vines to see what creatures they could find.  They found salamanders and snakes and many other crawling creatures, and sure enough, soon our youngest Zoe came up to me with a small snake entwined around her harm.  “Here, Grandaddy, I found a snake for you – take it and feel it!”  I don’t have a great fear of snakes, but they are not my favorite either.  Yet, I didn’t want to wimp out in front of my 5 year old granddaughter, so I took the snake and let it wrap around my arm too.  I looked over at David and nodded my head at him, as if to say: “You’re the cause of this.”

And, he was the cause of it – he is a huge snake advocate and fan.  This Sunday, January 31, marks his 41st birthday, and we give thanks for him and all his gifts to us!  I still remember that snowy night in Norfolk when I drove Caroline to the Catholic Hospital (the only one at that time that permitted birthing rooms and the Lamaze breathing method.). It took him 12 hours to make that night passage out of the womb, but here he was – our first child!  He was snorting weirdly as he came out, and the doc told me to cut the cord and walk with him to the special nursery to check out his breathing.  It turned out to be fine, and we took him home in a few days, only to discover that he never slept!  That trait later served him well, as he got his graduate degrees while working and raising a family.  

He majored in biology at Davidson College, and he came by that part naturally.  We lived on Kirk Road in his early years, with a creek running in front of the house, and here he learned to develop his love of creatures great and small.  He also worked at the Atlanta Zoo every summer for a decade, so animals were a central feature of his growing awareness of himself and the world around him.

    One of his great gifts is his gentle and compassionate heart, given to him by his genes, by his nurturing, and by his growing up at Oakhurst Presbyterian.  When he was thinking about applying to Davidson, I tried to discourage him because I had gone there for a year and had a hard time.  When I told him that it would be a bunch of conservative folks at Davidson, he replied:  “Dad – there are other folks at Davidson, and I’ll find them.  I’ve grown up at Oakhurst, so I know how to find people, and I can get along with a lot of different kinds of people.”  He got a good scholarship, and off he went.  There he met his sweetheart, Erin Graham, and they built a life together.

    When he got out of college, he began teaching in a poor middle school in Houston, where Erin was from.  His school district was poor, and as he began teaching middle school science, he discovered that there was no commitment to teaching the kids:  there was no lab equipment, nothing to help the students learn about science.  He began to rectify that, but then and there, he made a commitment to public education and to ensuring equity in public education, that all students would have significant opportunities to learn and to expand all their horizons.  In order to do that, he got a Master’s Degree in Education at University of Houston, and a doctorate at University of Washington in Seattle, all the while working, being married and raising two daughters – all that practice at not sleeping served him well!

     In 2013 he got a job in the education department of Michigan State, and when we went out to Seattle for his PHD graduation, I thanked his mentor for helping David to find a job.  He replied:  “It’s not just a job – it’s THE job. It is the best job out there this year.  You should be very proud.”  And, of course we are!  Today I looked at the MSU summary of his academic history and accomplishments, and it is over 24 pages long – wow!  Just last November, Harvard University Press published his book on preparing teachers to seek equity in STEM education – here’s the link to the book https://www.hepg.org/hep-home/books/preparing-science-teachers-through-practice-based#  On February 4, he will be among a panel of presenters who will give updates to new Congressional aides on the STEM program.  

     We are most proud, however, of his development as a person – son, student, husband, father, teacher, professor.  He has always been well coordinated, and he was a good soccer and tennis player.  When he was in middle school, his soccer coach came to us to tell us:  “David is a fine soccer player, and he can be even greater.  But, in order to do that, I’d need to teach him to have the killer instinct, which he currently does not have.  It is a big step, so I wanted to ask you about it first.”  Our reply:  “We really appreciate your talking with us – but, no, we like him like he is.  No killer instinct, just a wide heart and a keen mind.”

    That wide heart and keen mind– even for snakes – makes him such a great son, dad, husband, teacher, mentor, friend, and human being.  So many memories, so many stories to tell, so many stories to come!  We give thanks for him being in our lives!  Happy Birthday, David!