Laconia-----David Harold McBride, 70, died on Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at Forestview Manor in Meredith.
Teacher, Mentor, Administrator
David was born in Cambridge, Mass. on December 15, 1944 to Harold Patrick McBride and Mary (Newton) McBride(deceased.) The family lived in Boston, Mass and later in Houlton, Maine for several years. They later moved to Laconia in the early 1950’s. David graduated from Laconia High School in 1962 and from UNH in 1967.
Following two years of teaching English-as-a-second-language with the Peace Corps in a rural village in Iran, David stayed on to teach 7th and 8th grade English at the Iranzamin International School in Tehran and later taught 6th grade at the American School of Isfahan. With the Iranian Revolution in 1978,David relocated to Boston where he worked for a number of years as an administrator and as an adjunct professor at Northeastern University (NU). He was awarded his MEd in Counseling and School Administration from NU in 1989.
In the early 1990’s David returned to the Lakes Region with his mother and for the next twenty-one years he was the Associate Director of Admissions at Plymouth State University and an adjunct professor of English at Southern New Hampshire University.
David was devoted to the many young men and women he met throughout the years. He related to the students in a personal, professional and supportive manner. Those who knew him well were intrigued by David’s quick dry wit and by his knowledge of the world around him.
David was predeceased by his brother, James Newton McBride, in 2010.
He will be remembered by special friends, Karel S. Mikulis and children, Kyle Mikulis and Kara Maccabe, of Gilford, David R. Knapp of Hopkinton, MA and Jeffery Dyer, Alan Fioravanti, Jonathan Albertini, Anthony Sperazzo, Robert James and Bradley Reep, all graduates of Plymouth State University.
The Mary N. McBride Scholarship,which will recognize PSU students who are majoring in education with a focus on special needs, has been established at Plymouth State University to honor David’s and James’s mother who spent many years teaching kindergarten in the Laconia school system and teaching at the Laconia State School where she worked with students with learning disabilities.
Graveside services were held in September at the Newton/McBride family gravesite in Lubec, Maine.
Donations may be sent to the following address: Director, Advancement MSC 50, Plymouth State University, 17 High Street, Plymouth, NH 03264-1595.
Wilkinson-Beane Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 164 Pleasant Street, Laconia, NH is in charge of the arrangements. For more information and to view an online memorial go to www.wilkinsonbeane.com.