David Garvin Moursund passed away on September 1, 2021

MOURSAND—David Garvin Moursund passed away on Sept. 1, 2021, after a relatively short battle with stage 4 lung cancer. He was 84 years old.

Dave was a lifelong educator who moved to Florence in 2013 and soon became active in working for the good of students in our schools. A retired professor from the University of Oregon, Dave was a teacher, educator, computer scientist, author, mentor and friend to so many.

Dave was born in Eugene, Ore., on Nov. 3, 1936.

He graduated from the University of Oregon and then earned his doctorate in mathematics at the University of Wisconsin. He joined the faculty of the University of Oregon in 1969 and was made a professor emeritus at his retirement in 2002.

Dave is survived by his four children, Beth, Andy, Russell and Jenny; his four step-children, Bethanne, David, Bonnie and Scott; 10 grandchildren, his former wife Janet Moursund; and his life partner Ann Lathrop.

In Florence, Dave served as vice president of the Siuslaw Education Foundation, whose mission is to enhance academic achievement and expand learning opportunities for students in the Siuslaw region. When COVID hit, he assisted financially with the many adaptations needed for online learning, Internet accessibility, and student safety.

Dave also worked with Ann Lathrop to establish Safe Shelter for Siuslaw Students in 2019.

Its motto is “Safe Shelter is more than a house.” Their primary focus is to improve the quality of life for students and their families, acknowledging that homelessness and poverty are the two biggest deterrents to school success and educational advancement. Safe Shelter for Siuslaw Students works closely with the school district and local partners to address the needs of our students.

In retirement, Dave continued to publish books and articles in the field of computers and education.

He established the not-for-profit Information Age Education (IAE) in 2007 and experienced considerable success with making free educational materials available for use to improve informal and formal education at all levels, throughout the world. His books and his IAE newsletters are available for free download on the IAE website, www.i-a-e.org.

In his last book Dave said, “My dream for this oncoming future is that Homo Sapiens will make effective use of our continuing rapid technological progress to produce a good and sustainable quality of life for themselves, and also to create a balance with nature in which a huge range of forms of life are preserved and prosper.”

Those wishing to honor Dave’s memory may contribute to the Siuslaw Education Foundation (P.O. Box 2946, Florence), or Safe Shelter for Siuslaw Students (P.O. Box 1402, Florence), both federally registered 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organizations.

There is no more fitting epitaph for Dave Moursund than his own words: “A hundred years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove. … But the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.”