David Thomas Deacon of Corpus Christi, Texas (and formerly Kingsville, Texas), passed away July 1, 2021, at the age of 83.
The son of Charles Thomas and Dora Underwood Deacon, Dave was born on December 25, 1937, in Ridley Park, and was fortunate to grow up in Swarthmore, graduating from Swarthmore High School in 1956. He received his B.A. in 1960 from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, where he met his wife of 60 years, Sibyl Caster Deacon. They were married on September 10, 1960, and proceeded immediately to Boston University, from which Dave received his M.F.A. in directing and acting in 1962. The couple then returned to Earlham, where Dave began a one-year appointment teaching theatre and directing plays—filling in for his mentor, Arthur Little, who was on a one-year sabbatical studying Japanese Noh theatre. The Deacons then moved to Indianapolis’s Indiana Central College (now the University of Indianapolis), where he taught speech and theatre. He also designed, directed, and acted in many regional productions there.
In 1965, he accepted a position at Texas A & I College (later called TAMUK) as a designer and technical director. During his more than four decades there, as a theatre generalist, he was involved in over 350 productions, whether directing, acting, playwrighting, or doing set and lighting design. In the mid-1970s, he also began an interdisciplinary course of study in the fine arts at Ohio University.
Dave was fascinated by all aspects of life and was determined to have an interesting life. He figured that he could accomplish this by dedicating himself to theatre—the art that encompasses all the fine arts and connects its participants with literature, history, and all aspects of life. He believed that his fascination stemmed from the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, which occurred when he was just about to turn four years old. He remembered vividly how, on that day, his father, a Royal Naval Air Service veteran who had served in World War I, had been invited by a former Royal Navy comrade, Captain Jack Reed, to come aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Furious, which was undergoing repairs at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The attack—occurring at the very time his father was touring a warship—made a deep impression on him. (In light of this experience, it was ironic that, in 1973, while he was directing a Texas A & I student USO theatre tour of Far East military installations, he and a USO guide, who had been a soldier in the Japanese military during World War II—shared a room together at the Imperial Hotel in Sasebo, Japan — the very location where Admiral Yamamoto and his staff had planned the attack.)
Dave was happiest when teaching theatre, particularly when seeing young actors grow under his direction. In 2003, in recognition of teaching he had done at Texas A & M University - Kingsville, the Javelina Alumni Association presented him with its Distinguished Alumni Teaching Award. In 2005, the Las Luminarias (Bringer of Light) honor was bestowed on him by the university student body.
Professionally, Dave had the good fortune to work with many outstanding theatre professionals. For example, while he was a graduate student at Boston University, he directed Faye Dunaway and worked closely with musical theatre standouts Dave and Gretchen Cryer (parents of the actor Jon Cryer), and he worked with actors Robert Guillame, Brian Keith, William Warfield, Jason Rhodes, and Tony Brafa, and with the noted American religious dramatist Warren Kliewer.
His professional theatre work included designing, directing or acting in productions at the Hedgerow Theatre in Pennsylvania, the Wayside Theatre in Virginia, and the Georgia State Theatre in Columbus. In Georgia, he designed the southeastern premiere of Big River and, shortly after his retirement, he took on the role of Norman in On Golden Pond. He was also no stranger to community theatre: at the Harbor Playhouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, he was recognized with awards for directing, and for his leading roles as Preston Jones in The Oldest Living Graduate and as Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady. In the 1980s, he was a director with the Alpha Psi Omega Players, a professional touring company then based in Rockport, Texas. In 1994, he collaborated with Janelle Kleberg, adapting for the stage her stories of the early history of the King Ranch—in a production he entitled Tales of the Wild Horse Desert. This epic play portrayed the unique contributions made by the local Anglo, Hispanic, and African American communities to the development of that storied ranch.
As a youngster, Dave had always wanted to be a cowboy, which perhaps accounts for his involvement, later in life, with King Ranch in particular and the South Texas horse culture in general. For three decades, he devoted himself to his two horses—his beloved Arabian, Omni Almarah, and his quarter horse, Kodi, riding them regularly in the Kleberg County Sheriff’s Mounted Patrol events. His intense love of animals, both domestic and wild, also led him to adopt an old mule, Red, who had survived a killer bee attack.
Soon after his 2006 retirement as Professor Emeritus of Theatre, Dave became restless and yearned for a return to stage work. In 2010, he volunteered to teach theatre at Presbyterian Pan American International High School along with his former student Ric Saenz. Having always considered himself a citizen of the world, he found great satisfaction in teaching theatre arts to international students, and in writing plays that were tailored to their interests.
Dave is survived by his wife, Sibyl, of Corpus Christi, Texas; son Marshal Deacon and grandson Nathan of Columbia City, Indiana; son Keith Deacon (Denise) of Monroe, Washington; son Eric Deacon of Kingsville, Texas; nieces Susan Royce of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, and Lisa Aspy of Woodstock, Georgia; and nephew Rick Durkee of Savanna, Georgia.
He was preceded in death by his sister, Pauline Durkee, of Woodstock, Georgia.
In lieu of flowers, Dave requested that donations be made to animal welfare organizations such as Animal Rescue Kleberg (ARK), the ASPCA, Best Friends, or Habitat for Horses.
