David Childs Gleason, M.D,
Retired M.D. who was loved for his sense of humor, his dedication to friends and family and his appreciation of art, culture and, of course, a dry martini and fine wine
David Childs Gleason, M.D. formerly of West Groton and Boston, died in Mesa, AZ on August 1 as the result of an earlier fall. He was 90 years old.
Dr. Gleason was born in Evanston, IL and grew up in Kalamazoo, MI. He graduated from Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, MA and Dartmouth College. Before medical school, he worked at the Grenfell Mission in Saint Anthony, Newfoundland as a medical assistant, traveling by boat to serve the medical needs of residents of northern Newfoundland.
He graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1960. Dr. Gleason interned at Mary Hitchcock Hospital in Hanover, NH and was a resident in radiology at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. He spent a year as an assistant registrar in radiology at Hammersmith Hospital in London, England. Upon returning to the US, he served in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Navy at Chelsea Naval Hospital in Chelsea, MA. He practiced radiology throughout his career in private practice and at Boston area hospitals, retiring as Chief of Radiology at the Lovell General Hospital East at Fort Devens in Ayer. MA.
He was a long-time resident of West Groton, where he had a small farm and raised Angus and then Belted Galloway cattle and pigs. After his retirement from medicine, David became an innkeeper, operating a popular bed and breakfast in West Groton called Wrangling Brook Farm, having found, as he said, his true passion in hospitality.
He moved with his wife, Lynne Barr Gleason, in 2005 to their home on Beacon Hill. While living on Beacon Hill, he volunteered as a census taker to get to know his neighbors and later became a guide for Boston by Foot, conducting architectural tours of the neighborhood. He moved with Lynne to Tempe, AZ in 2020.
He is survived by his wife, Lynne, of 36 years, his children, Matthew, Emily, Daniel and Benjamin Gleason, Elizabeth Mahoney, Alexis Barr and Katherine Barr-Cornish and their spouses and partners, as well as 13 grandchildren. He is also survived by his sister, Roberta Maschal.
He loved travel and reading, especially poetry. He had been to all 50 states and all the continents except Antarctica. He was an avid cyclist (having ridden the Pan-Mass Challenge for many years, the last time when he was 70) and he was also an experienced pilot. For the past 24 years, he spent a portion of every year with his wife at their beloved home in a small wine village in southern France, where he could indulge his love of French cuisine and the wines of the Languedoc. David was loved for his sense of humor, his dedication to friends and family and his appreciation of art, culture and, of course, a dry martini and fine wine.
Donations may be made in David’s memory to Deerfield Academy. Donations can be mailed to The Class of 1952 Memorial Fund, Deerfield Academy, P.O. Box 306, Deerfield, MA 01342 or made online at https://deerfield.edu/alumni/give/make-a-gift.