David Gottlieb

The same could be said of David Gottlieb, who at 5-foot-9 also cast a long shadow in his 90 full, productive, amazing years of life that ended on August 8, 2018 in The Woodlands, Texas.

There was no doubt when David was in the room, whether he was booming out a song —a hybrid of rousing Detroit Socialist Union/tongue-in-the-cheek sarcasm and hyperbole—for employees at a corporate setting, or talking passionately about Super Adults (please not senior citizens!) or expounding the virtues of Scottish single malt whisky. He had a mind that sought to explore and soar.

He was born in Detroit July 7, 1928, the third son of four boys whose parents, Maishul “Morris” and Tzipeh “Sophie” Gottlieb, were immigrants from Belarus, who came to America in the early 1920s.

As an adolescent, David began to express his independent, impulsive side and managed to get kicked out of several schools in the Detroit public school system. His life began to find purpose in 1945 when seven months shy of his 17th birthday, he signed on as a young sailor on the Josiah Wedgwood, which secretly transported 1,257 WWII survivors from Europe to Palestine—prior to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. This illegal immigration was known as Aliyah Bet (the going up to the Promised Land). David recounted his early life in his memoir “Almost A Mensch”.

David returned to the United States where he received a GED, and went on to graduate from Wayne State University, then completing his doctorate in Sociology from the University of Chicago in 1960 with an emphasis on the Sociology of Education and Adolescent Behavior.

As a professor at Michigan State University he received the Governor’s Award for Outstanding Service from Governor George Romney for developing programs for disadvantaged youth. During this time he also served as a member of President Kennedy’s Committee on Science and Technology. His academic work and publications caught the attention of Sargent Shriver in the Johnson Administration, and in 1964 he moved to Washington, D.C. to join the US Office of Economic Opportunity as Deputy Director of the Job Corps. In 1965 David received a Special Service Award for his work on the development of the Job Corps from Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

From there David became a member of the faculty at Penn State University before accepting an offer in 1973 from the University of Houston, where in addition to teaching, he served as a member of a mayor-appointed task force with the mission of building a partnership between business and low income at-risk public high schools through mentoring and internship programs. In his third year at the university, David accepted the position of Dean of the College of Social Sciences.

During this time, he met Houston oilman George Mitchell who was developing a planned community 27 miles north of Houston, called The Woodlands. Mitchell initially hired David as a consultant to coordinate conferences on Sustainable Societies at The Woodlands and to assist with the development of higher education partnerships in The Woodlands. In 1985 Mitchell lured David to The Woodlands as vice president for Institutional Development for The Woodlands Development Company, where he assisted companies and institutions to develop projects in the newly created Research Forest in The Woodlands and worked to establish the Montgomery Community College—now Lone Star College. It was at The Woodlands where he met his wife, Brenda. They were married in 1994 and together they became strong advocates for the arts in the community.

In 1995 David became president and CEO of The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Performing Arts, where he worked to fulfill George and Cynthia Mitchell’s dream of making The Woodlands Pavilion an outstanding showcase of music (to use the phrase he coined) “from rock to Bach”.

In 2003 David joined Woodforest National Bank as Vice President of Strategic Community Development. He was a founding board member of the Woodforest Charitable Foundation and recently retired at age 89.

Among his many recognitions, the one that David was proudest of, was when he received the Alyeh Medal in 2011 from the State of Israel Ministry of Defense for his contribution to the birth of the state of Israel. Other recognitions he received were: City of Houston Read Commission First President and Co-founder; Forum Club of Houston Ben Woodson Medal as one of the founders of the Forum Club of Houston; Japanese American Society Houston Chapter President’s Award; Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year Award; Hometown Hero of The Woodlands; and The Woodlands Arts Council Special Founder Recognition.

He was preceded in death by his parents and brothers Bob, Norman and Harold. He is survived by his wife, Brenda and son Saul Dachslager of Dallas; his daughter Amy and Bruce Hogge of Houston; son Peter and Debbie of Dallas; daughter Rebecca and husband Randy Long of Albuquerque; son Michael of Seattle; and daughter Sara Hogue of Cincinnati; also, grandchildren Jordan Owens, Nick, Alyssa and Nathan Gottlieb, Adrienne and Andrew Long, Bailyn, Hunter and Campbell Hogue, and great grandchildren Connor and Logan Owens; also, numerous nephews and nieces from Michigan, Florida, New York and California.

The family recognizes the special care given to David by the staff of Brookdale and Vantage Hospice and all the dear friends who visited and sent loving messages to David in his final days.

There are many words to describe the generosity, compassion and efforts of David’s magnanimous spirit, but perhaps we leave it with his own words, which he put into practice with “The Actions of One”— yet another organization he founded: “It is our action, not inaction; our empathy, not apathy and our courage to act that matters.”

A celebration of David’s life will take place on Tuesday, August 21 at 2 pm at The Woodlands United Methodist Church, 2200 Lake Woodlands Dr in The Woodlands, Texas. The celebration will feature music from “rock to Bach” and include performances by dear friends Darryl Bayer, artistic director of The Woodlands Symphony Orchestra, and jazz pianist and composer Paul English from Houston. After a private cremation, David requested his ashes be scattered over the Isle of Skye in Scotland.

For those who would like to commemorate David’s life, we ask that you contribute to the arts. Go see a play, go to the opera or a concert. Visit a museum or art gallery. Celebrate the arts. Support them in your community. Memorial contributions in David’s honor can also be made to: The Woodlands Symphony Orchestra or The Woodlands Arts Council.