David Eugene Loomis, born to Carl Eugene Loomis and Catherine Maguigan Loomis on August 2, 1941 in Portland, Oregon, died on April 26, 2024 at his home in Portsmouth, VA.

He grew up in Klamath Falls, OR with his siblings Ann Loomis Lopez, Barbara Loomis Brown, and twins Francis and John Loomis.  At age 14 David entered the Christian Brothers Junior Novitiate in Napa Valley, CA, and later graduated from St. Mary's College in Moraga, CA.  He taught in Christian Brothers high schools before being sent by his order to study for his PhD in Freiburg, Germany, where he met Julia Dorsey Reed.

She had never met anyone who sang Gregorian chant while driving a VW bug, packed with fellow students, to a beer festival.

After a year of study, David returned to the U.S., obtained release from his monastic vows, and worked as a roofer in San Diego to pay for further education.  Two years later he and Julia Dorsey were married at Trinity Episcopal Church in Portsmouth in an ecumenical service arranged by Bishops Walter Sullivan and David Rose. The newlyweds moved to South Bend, Indiana, where David completed his PhD at Notre Dame, which included another year in Freiburg as a Fulbright scholar.

In 1971 the couple moved to Berkeley/Oakland, CA.  Here their three children—Robert Eugene Loomis (Nathalia Couto), Anna Catherine Loomis, and Rebecca Shaw Loomis (Tom Bayliss) — were born, and David began teaching at St. Mary's College as chair of the Department of Integral Studies.  In 1979 the family moved to Portsmouth and lived in a three-generational home with his parents-in-law. While looking for teaching positions, David worked as foreman of Portsmouth Lumber Treatment, Inc.  He then began thirty years of teaching philosophy and world religions at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.  He peppered his lectures on Plato or Descartes with stories from Greek myths, Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and Bob Dylan.

At ODU he played basketball with the NBA (Noon Basketball Association) and maintained lifelong friendships with his fellow players.  One of them said, "He may have been called a gentle giant, but this was not true on the basketball court."

David delighted in his children and grandchildren—Charlotte and Teddy Davey (Brad Davey), Henry and Gabriel Sol (Bill Sol) and Sophia Loomis—and attended as many of their games and performances as possible, always looking for an occasion for a celebratory Doumar's banana split.

For years he rode his bicycle daily, through sun and wind, heat and cold, along the Portsmouth waterfront from the Naval Hospital to the Shipyard.  In his last months he delighted in looking out the window towards the Elizabeth River, celebrating each passerby, human or canine, and the tugs, barges, ferries and sailboats.  He counted each blackbird feeding in the grass below.

Friends and students have described David as kind, gentle, generous, grateful, patient, humorous, and wise. Though often beset by pain, he lived and breathed love for every creature.

A funeral service will be held at 11:00 a.m., Friday, May 24th at Trinity Episcopal Church, 500 Court St., Portsmouth, with interment to follow in the church yard and reception in the parish house.

Memorial donations may be made to a charity of your choice. Condolences may be registered at BWFosterFuneralHome.com.