David Lee Neville

Native Son~Born on June 3, 1954 in Carrboro to Mr. & Mrs. Hubert Morris Neville.

Returned home on June 3 in the year 2000.

From David Kirkman:

• David and I met when we sat next to each other in Mr. Prebble's beginning band class in 7th grade. He played trumpet and I played sax. His pleasant demeanor and kind spirit were very apparent from the start. We both watched in amusement and exchanged disbelieving looks as Earl Bynum, who sat on my other side and played sax, constantly cracked up the class and, quite often, hacked off Mr. Prebble, who was just trying to teach us music. Neither David nor I could believe Earl's audacity, his pranks and his comic timing, but we and others in the class (Inez McCauley, Gene Alcott, Dwight Greenhill, Bruce Farrow) laughed like crazy nevertheless.

• David's friendliness and outward demeanor remained the same as we all negotiated Guy B. Phillips Jr. High and CHHS. I remember discussing with him in gym class in 10th grade how racial frictions in the school and in society had affected friendships among classmates and how things had sure changed since Jr. High. I pretty much asked him why his approach to classmates had not changed. He shook his head and said something like, "All this mess. It's not what matters." His soul was firmly rooted in the right place.

From Ruthie Bodenheimer:

I thought David was always a very polite and nice person.

He & I had a couple of classes together in High School.

He also drove a Bus for the City of Chapel Hill, and it happened to be the F Route-which is what I rode!