Bladewire

David Gay was a legend in his own time he will be truly missed R.I.P.


A Life: David Gay, 1940-2017; "He Had the Ability to See to the Core of Somebody"

The music director, then the artistic director, of Revels North from 1989 to 2005, Gay died on April 30 at Joslyn House in Randolph, surrounded by a group of close friends, after being treated for kidney failure and diabetes. He was 76.

Though he never married or had children, ?he sure had family,? said Sharon Groblicki, a friend of Gay?s for 27 years who worked with him in several capacities at Revels North, a nonprofit arts organization now based in White River Junction.

?He made so many of us family, just by the fact that we all knew him,? she added.

The family that Gay was born into, like the one he found along the way, was captivated by music. His mother, Myrtle Gay, was a church soloist. His father, Donald Gay, was a high school musical director and a piano technician. Born in Dover, N.H., in 1940, Gay spent most of his childhood in Auburn, Maine.

?In that house, how could you not be musical?? said his sister, Martha Gay Runnerstrom, herself a former music teacher.

He was especially fond of the pipe organ, which he saw as a majestic, transcendent instrument.

?He used to walk all the way from Auburn across the Androscoggin River bridge to Lewiston to practice at the cathedral there,? Runnerstrom said. ?He did that many times.?

Though Gay and his siblings were raised Baptist, Gay played organ at a number of churches through his adolescence, and was especially taken with Episcopalianism.

?The Baptist church we went to was very folksy and family-oriented,? Runnerstrom recalled. ?Not that David wasn?t that way, but I think he liked the ritual and the ceremony of Episcopalianism.? It appealed to the same parts of him that loved performance, and the stage, she said. Per his request, his funeral service was held in the high Episcopal tradition.

After high school, Gay went on to attend Eastern University, then called Eastern Baptist College, in St. Davids, Pa., where he majored in psychology. Though he considered several career paths ? he had tentatively planned on becoming a psychologist, and toyed with the idea of studying for Episcopalian priesthood ? ?it wasn?t long before he was pulled back to the music,? Runnerstrom said.

Shortly after college, Gay played keyboard in a Los Angeles rock band called Pilot. He relocated to Boston in the early 1970s, where he performed with the Renaissance and medieval-era musical group Quadrivium, followed by the quintet Alexander?s Feast.

In 1977, he formed his own musical community with Northern Harmony, which traveled around New England in celebration of early, world and contemporary music and theater. He also played keyboard and harp for the instrumental trio Filigree Deep, and performed with the traveling folk festival Green Mountain Crossing.

Though his spirituality continued to be important to him, it was not confined to a singular faith.

His former music colleague and housemate in Boston, Michael Cicone, remembers that Gay?s bedroom was ?fully stocked with Tibetan symbology? when they lived together in the early 1990s.

?I think he saw that Eastern spiritual philosophy as a way to find meaning in the world,? Cicone added.

In keeping with this non-denominational mysticism, Gay was also a practiced reader of Tarot.

He had a ?psychic sense,? for which Tarot cards were one vehicle, said Susan Robbins, his former colleague and friend of 46 years.

?On a sort of psycho-spiritual level, he had the ability to see to the core of somebody, to see what their potential was and what was holding them back,? Robbins recalled. ?He was very attuned to the archetypes of human nature, and believed there was some great spirit moving through each one of us, connecting us all.?

This was part of what made him such an inspirational artistic director ? he brought out in people what they didn?t think they could do.

Perhaps more than anywhere else, Gay parsed his spirituality through music, and through the tight-knit community that music fostered. Groblicki remembers taking voice lessons with him, years before they co-directed Revels North shows together.

?Singing was not just words with him,? she said. ?He?d drop little pearls that were astounding. He?d say things offhand that were profound and life-changing.?