Remembering David McCandlish

The BSOS community celebrates the life and mourns the loss of our friend and colleague David McCandlish, who passed away on Feb. 18, 2022, at the age of 62.

David served as the librarian for the Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR) since 2001, after earning his Master of Library and Information Science degree from UMD.

His work with media scans, literature searches, and document retrieval were invaluable to the scope and mission of CESAR, which is dedicated to addressing the problems substance abuse creates for individuals, families, and communities.

“David was loved by all. He was super dedicated to his daughter, Georgia, and his wife, Lonni,” said CESAR Director Dr. Eric Wish. “At CESAR, David began as a library science graduate student and never left. He organized our library and did literature searches for people all over the university. He was my co-instructor for our highly popular stock market honors and freshmen connection classes for 15 years, where he recruited and trained teaching assistants and he managed the class. He made it possible to teach online last year.”

Numerous other colleagues and students remember David as “encouraging, motivating and kind,” “willing to help out,” “a caring soul,” and a “kind, free spirit.”

“David was the kind of person who was always there and present in the moment,” said Erin Artigiani, deputy director of policy for CESAR. “He was creative but sensible, industrious, and ready to do whatever needed to be done, and always willing and eager to help. He could always find an answer or solution to a question or problem.”

David enjoyed crew, outdoor activities, managing his community pool, dancing, and spending time with his family.

His colleagues and students remember him with great fondness, and remain inspired by his health-focused lifestyle, and his enjoyment of life.

David was honored in a memorial service. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Cedarville Band of Piscataway Indians, or the Southwest Harbor Public Library of Maine.

Published on Fri, Mar 18, 2022 - 11:55AM