David Thomas McClelland

David Thomas McClelland was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad on the equinox, June 21, 1951 in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England. Accompanying his American born parents and brother, he crossed to the United States on the RMS Caronia at the age of 3 months. His subsequent childhood in Connecticut, Delaware, and Iowa was happily spent playing baseball, riding bicycles, reading the encyclopedia, and fishing in the river. He attended public schools before graduating from the Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Delaware in 1969. While attending Hamilton College he met Mei-ling Hom, a Kirkland College student, with whom he spent more than half a century. After obtaining his Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Drexel University in Philadelphia, David directed the only US library solely focused on space imaging of the Earth’s surface at the EROS Data Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Subsequently he returned to Philadelphia and served as a librarian at the Tyler School of Art. Purchasing abandoned housing in Philadelphia’s historic neighborhoods, of necessity led to a mastery of renovation skills. Learning carpentry, tile setting, masonry, plumbing, electricity, painting, and more arcane skills such as slate roofing gave him a deep sense of satisfaction and he was able to restore several fire damaged or long deserted homes to renewed life. While pursuing this dual career he was also involved with a passion for artistic expression that he shared with partner Mei-ling. Both were potters of ability and they spent time making porcelain at the old Imperial kilns of Jingdezhen in China and researching contemporary ceramics in Korea. As a sensitive artistic and construction collaborator, David was involved in creating Mei-ling’s permanent sculptural installations in Philadelphia, the Blue Mountains of Australia, and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, and temporary installations in Bangkok, Berlin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans, New York, and elsewhere. After retiring Mei-ling and David devoted more of their time to a fallow 85 acre farm they had purchased in the high western hills of New York State. Backing into regenerative farming after realizing that they were stewards of valuable soil on a world with shrinking assets David planted an orchard of rare varieties devoted to both cider making and fresh eating. His favorite tree was King David. The organic cider produced at Maplebank Farm compared favorably with the Gold Medal winner at the New York State Fair and the garlic from the alluvial soil is highly sought after. Mastering the skill of staying unharmed on dangerous farm equipment was a steep late life learning curve. A diagnosis of asymptomatic stage IV pancreatic cancer brought a sharp turn to the river of his life. Through good fortune and the efforts of Mei-ling and his medical team David was able to live for months beyond expectations enjoying a last season harvesting King David apples at his farm and a chance to bond with his many acquaintances around the world. Noted for his vocabulary, frugality, sense of humor, tenacity of purpose, hoarding of books, and kindness to dogs he will be missed by friends and creditors. He ceased living on June 16, 2025. His ashes rest at Woodlands Cemetery in Philadelphia under a limestone sculpture that he and Mei-ling consider their last collaboration.