David G. Tolwinski, beloved husband, father, brother, and grandfather, passed away at home on July 7, at the age of 72, after an 8-year battle with Multiple System Atrophy (MSA). MSA is a rare neurological disease that David endured with strength, courage, and humility. He was at home and peaceful in his final days and hours, and his loving wife, Loretta, and their children Susan and Gregory were by his side. He had meaningful visits in his last month from close friends and from his brother Jan, as well as from his sister-in-law Gloria and her husband John. His family will hold a private interment ceremony of David's ashes at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, MA, and will announce a memorial celebration of David's life at a later date. Our family requests no flowers be sent, but instead, donations in David's honor to the Defeat MSA Alliance or to the Home for Little Wanderers , a favorite charity of David's. David's Story Adventurous explorer of the high seas, forests, and open roads; business leader; engineer; voracious reader; armchair astrophysicist and philosopher; and fix-anything handyman are some of the ways he was known to us and to others. Above all else, David was a devoted and loving family man, who taught his children to "enjoy their gift of the day", every single day. Born February 6th, 1950, in Wilmington, Delaware, to John and Elizabeth Tolwinski, David lived most of his childhood in Edison, NJ, where he grew up with his younger brother, Jan. "Davey" was curious, clever, and a bit mischievous. He loved baseball more than anything, and played every chance he got. From an early age, David was mechanically gifted and could fix anything. As a teen, he enjoyed ham radio, bicycles, and taking apart and reassembling his father's car in the driveway. Sailboat wallpaper in his boyhood bedroom foreshadowed another passion that would unfurl in later years. David met Loretta Mancuso sophomore year at Edison High School and never looked back. He often said later how lucky he'd been to meet the love of his life so young, and to have her by his side for the rest of his years. After both graduated from Rutgers University, where David majored in electrical engineering, he sold his ham radio and bicycle to afford a ring, and they were married in August of 1973. Soon after, David's first job as an engineer took them north to Massachusetts, which felt to two Jersey kids like moving to the arctic wild. Nonetheless, they became enthusiastic New Englanders in short order, cross-country skiing and hiking forests and hillsides, cycling and canoeing beneath sunlit foliage, picking apples and converting forever to real maple syrup. Loretta supported David with her teaching when he went back to school for his MBA at Boston University, where he graduated in 1979 first in his class. Later the same year, their first child, Gregory, was born. Two more children, Susan and Joseph, joined the Tolwinski family by 1983. The couple often reflected later that it was during this time, through raising small children with other parents doing the same, that they forged many of their closest lifelong friendships. Meanwhile, David's career picked up steam as he charted a course in the nascent field of data networking. Following a series of marketing and product development positions, he took a bold tack in joining Synernetics, a start-up and pioneer of ethernet switching. In his work as VP of Marketing over the next three years, David derived profound intellectual satisfaction and treasured bonds of camaraderie with his colleagues. His leadership played an important part in aligning the team's hard work with the chance winds of the time to move the company toward success, and David was proud to have helped shape the emerging information superhighway. When Synernetics was acquired by 3Com, David remained on as General Manager of the Switching Division. David's professional success during these years afforded him the ability to spend precious family time in Chatham, Cape Cod, which he identified as "the place of my childhood dreams." There, David showed his wife and three children the bliss of adventure and discovery on long hikes to ever-changing sandbars that might as well have been the edge of the world, eating clams straight off the beach, and exuberant rides in his fixer-up motorboat, Lori Sue. Captain and his crew of four braved the choppy waters of Nantucket Sound, and returned frequently to an unnamed natural harbor they dubbed "Tolwinski Bay". Later, David taught himself to sail on a 14-foot catboat he christened Etude. David found tremendous joy in harnessing the elements, tiller and mainsheet in his steady hands, joined by family members and dear friends, as he navigated the hidden bays, sandbars, and tides around Monomoy Island. This era of fair winds and following seas was shattered by the tragic and immeasurable loss of David and Loretta's youngest child, Joe, in 1996. The Tolwinski family struggled to make sense of life and to move forward. David left 3Com in 1999 to recalibrate, spending a few months building a wooden sailing dinghy in the basement with his oldest son Greg, before taking on the first of two roles he would hold as President and CEO of data networking start-ups. Half a decade later, David and Loretta still found themselves unmoored and adrift in the restlessness of extended grief, and moved three times over four years. As David's career in high tech wound down toward early retirement, Loretta's picked up through meaningful work in the field of early childhood education. The couple lived for a period in Newport, RI, where David enrolled in wooden boat restoration school, and tested his sailing chops in Narragansett Bay. They tried out apartment living for a time in Cambridge, and road tripped cross country more than once by RV, discovering the spectacular beauty of the National Parks and appreciating the rich cultural fabric of America. At last they circled back and settled again in Concord, MA, resting place of their son Joseph, and what would be David's last home. Over the next decade, and into what would be his final years, David was overjoyed to watch Susan and Gregory grow in their own careers and find their life partners. He gave heartfelt toasts at their weddings, and was further elated at the arrival of each of his three grandchildren: Cassidy Sonora Tolwinski Ward in 2012, Rocco Felix Tolwinski Ward in 2016, and Ondine Clara Jerilee Tolwinski in 2021. David's illness slowly took hold and robbed his ability to enjoy outdoor adventure, and eventually to leave home at all. Yet David continued to find joy in time spent with his family and grandkids; reading aloud with his and Loretta's long-time book club of dear friends; avidly cheering the New England Patriots (to an only slightly lesser extent, the Tampa Buccaneers in recent seasons); and following the Hubble and Webb telescopes online. Our love for David extends beyond the edge of the observable universe, unbounded by the constraints of space and time. We choose to believe his energy will reunite with that of our Joe T., and we know that on a cosmic timescale, we're only the wink of a distant supernova behind. Meanwhile, we deeply miss our Daddy David, but will carry him in our hearts through whatever adventures, tempests, and joys are yet to come. Loretta, Greg, and Suz The Tolwinski Family July 12, 2022