David Llewellyn Minehart – 50th Reunion Essay

David Llewellyn Minehart

5745 Keowee Way

Raleigh, North Carolina 27616

dlminehart@gmail.com

Spouse(s): Rebecca Kuiken (1982–2010), Rose Hiebert (2013–present)

Child(ren): Marika (1987), Janna (1991)

Education: Yale, BA in Economics, 1969; UC Berkeley, MS in Energy & Resources, 1991

Career: Photographer, journalist, photolithographer, typographer (SF Bay Area for 20 years); publishing systems manager (SF Bay Area for 20 years); technical account manager (Raleigh for 7 years); retired (Raleigh since 2017).

Avocations: Photography, woodworking, gardening, strolling in nature.

College: Branford

I came to Yale via the Midwest and India, where my father worked as an agricultural advisor. I chose international economics as my Yale major, intending to work in economic development abroad.

Naïvely surprised by social class divisions at Yale, I was pleased to meet fellow bursary students studying to get grades that might advance their careers in the absence of family connections.

Most powerful academic memories of Yale include architecture class with Vincent Scully, film history with Standish Lawder, classical civilization with Erich Segal. These courses shaped how I’ve experienced my world ever since. My instructors in core classes like econ and stats were competent but not thrilling, perhaps an omen that my selection of major would not ultimately lead to a career.

But Yale was far more than its academics. In the form of many of my classmates, professors, and pastor William Sloan Coffin, Yale also inspired me to passionate but informed struggles for civil rights and against the Vietnam War.

With a low draft lottery number and no intention of military service, I obtained admission to the U of Toronto’s PhD program in econ. Postponing that move indefinitely, I worked a night shift for a year in the Yale Daily News darkroom, doing prepress camera work. My bursary jobs at Yale had included working as darkroom and studio assistant in the Peabody Museum and the biology department. Having also worked on publications in high school, this YDN gig seemed a natural.

Building on the photography and prepress skills acquired at Yale, after hitchhiking alone to the SF Bay Area I spent the next 38 years there at a series of jobs: typographer and photographer in a commune producing a countercultural weekly paper, typographer and lithographer in a graphics collective serving needs of non-profits, typographer and publishing systems manager at a commercial design and typography company, publishing systems manager at a national tech magazine and a regional newspaper. While working full time and starting my family of two girls, I earned a master’s in energy and resources at UC Berkeley, thinking I’d change careers. It proved unrealistic, as my job offers were at entry-level pay on the other side of the country, while my wife had a hard-won and scarce position as a pastor with excellent benefits in the Bay Area.

Instead, with the economy in a tailspin in 2008 and publishing positions shrinking, I found long-term work hard to get, and my 28-year marriage dissolved. Low point in my life. A nephew suggested I apply at the Raleigh office of Yardi Systems, an international software company in which he worked. There I spent seven years implementing new commercial property management clients. In 2013, I married Rose, a colleague, love of my life, and my older daughter joined us at Yardi. In 2015, my younger daughter started at NYU Medical School. I’m happily proud of both my daughters! I retired last year, while Rose continues working, and making our health insurance affordable. I look forward eagerly to showing her around Yale.