Valley Teacher David Stitt Dies

A month before he died, David Stitt drove to Lake Roosevelt for a last visit to his half-built cabin.

Stitt, a respected Valley teacher with an appetite for wild rivers and full-blooded adventuring, died of lung cancer this week. He was not a smoker. “My God, the last time I saw Dave Stitt he looked like he could climb Mount Everest,” said Wyn Birkenthal, county parks and rec director, after learning of Stitt’s death.

A memorial service for Stitt, who was 49, is to be held at 3 p.m. today at Life Center, 723 W. Nora.

“We would welcome all of our friends. It will really be a celebration of who he was,” said Cheryl Stitt, David’s wife.

Stitt taught for more than 20 years in the Central Valley School District, most of that time at Evergreen Junior High. He taught science, including environmental education, a good fit with his passion for the outdoors.

Fellow teacher Tess Clowe said he shared his ideas and materials with a generosity she’s seen rarely in her career.

“He knew so much more than I did. He was very intelligent. And I was good at developing activities. We were a perfect match.”

“He also always gave awesome backrubs,” Clowe said.

David and Cheryl Stitt came to Spokane during Expo 74. He saw it as a good place to do whitewater river guiding, his first love.

Why did he teach?

“Well, I’ve got a letter here from one his students who talked about why David inspired him,” Cheryl said. “This is from a kid who had him in the very first class he ever taught. ‘This is what I remember from fifth grade, Mr. Stitt: You as a nurturing, caring teacher, and in your first year at that.

“‘You were talking to me and you said, ‘It wouldn’t surprise me if someday you were president of the United States.’ There’s a special impact when it comes from someone who doesn’t share your last name.”’

“I think that’s why he was a teacher,” Cheryl said.

Stitt jumped at the chance to design an environmental education class, and built a ropes course at Liberty Lake Park, off the main trail to the cedars.

He taught both students and teachers on the ropes course.

And there were grander adventures, too.

Every spring break for the last three years, he took a group of teachers on a trip to Belize.

“He said that teachers need to be taken out of their element and do something exciting,” Cheryl said. “When he did that first trip to Belize, he’d never even been there. And it was so well planned. You felt like he knew all the people he was working with. With 40 people, he ventured out on a trip. And it was wonderful.”

Stitt’s big dream was to build a lake cabin, his wife said. When he was diagnosed last summer with cancer, the couple had just bought land and designed the cabin.

“Even through his battle with cancer, he was out there digging and working on it. The cabin is half-finished. He was determined to get a roof on it before the snow fell and he did.”

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