| Co-Founder and CEO of One World Insitute Passes Away
Our friend David Lawrence died yesterday after a long struggle with metastatic malignant melanoma. He was a man with a good heart, and we will miss him.
He worked at projects with dogged determination and optimism, coupled with creative brilliance. For example, when I asked him to find me two wheelchairs, he found thousands; and when I asked him to find a box of antibiotics, he found $6,000,000 or more. His work as Co-Founder and CEO of One World Insitute helped more than thirty thousand destitute people in the Philippines and Cambodia. There is simply no one else who can do what David was able to do.
As a child he worked in 50 movies, with Jimmy Stewart, Alan Ladd, and a host of stars. His father, United States Senator Alan Cranston, taught him the ways of diplomacy.
His last words to me were, "Remember me as healthy and powerful." So let us raise a glass to a humble man who deserves to be remembered.
Tom Stern, Chairman of the Board
Letters
Dear Dr. Stern,
I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to create a relationship with David. He was a vibrant and tenacious man to say the least! He was always so encouraging to me and showed so much gratitude. The world is a better place because of him and I am a better person. He will surely be missed by many including our staff at Free Wheelchair Mission, I send my condolences to you and your dear wife as well as David’s family. May God’s grace and peace be with you at this time.
We are honored to continue this partnership in David’s memory and hope that he looks down upon the thousands of wheelchair recipients in the Philippines and now in Cambodia and can see the light in the eyes of those who have been given this great gift.
God bless,
Whitney Billen
Program Manager
Free Wheelchair Mission
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Tom,
David Lawrence was the first human being I met when I came to Berkeley in 1970. Fifteen minutes later I met his identical twin Donald and I did not believe that it was 2 separate people, they were so identical. They both had motorcycles, as did I, and we went on many motorcycle trips together. Riding on the back of his bike was one of the scariest moments of my life as we took a freeway curve at 70 MPH on a rain slicked road.
He and Don became my good friends and I will miss David for a long time.
-Larry Jacobs
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