Dirk Spruyt – October 15, 1925 to November 16, 2016

Dirk Spruyt, who was an active member of CES for many years, died peacefully at age 91 on November 15, 1925. He grew up in California, Holland, Washington, Long Island, Massachusetts and Vermont.

He went to college at Swarthmore (PA), earned an MD from the University of Rochester (NY) in 1954, and then went to Dartmouth for surgical and general practitioner residencies. In 1959 he earned a MPH from Harvard University. He spent the next six years in Ethiopia providing medical care from a mobile tented clinic. In 1967, he began teaching at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. From 1977-1981 he served in the Chronic Disease Branch, NC Division of Health Services.

Dirk was an ardent follower of Thomas Berry and manifested his concern for sustainability through CES, through serving on a sustainability advisory board of the Town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, through the Quaker church, and in many other ways. He also demonstrated his willingness to accept limits by making his bike his primary form of transportation in good weather and bad well into his eighties.

He was a wonderful counselor and friend to many people and was well loved in his community.

We will deeply miss him.

See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/newsobserver/obituary.aspx?n=dirk-spruyt&pid=182662890#sthash.1vNWjFP6.dpuf