Necrology

David Maitland Hornblower '86

Sep. 29, 2024-Jan. 12, 2024

David Maitland Hornblower ’86 died on Jan. 12, 2024, at his home in Pound Ridge, N.Y. Born on Sept. 29, 1963, in Greenwich, Conn., he came to Hamilton from St. George’s School in Middletown, R.I. On the Hill, he was a member of Sigma Phi fraternity and majored in English literature. He spent his sophomore year at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

David developed a passion for crew when, during the summer of 1980, he saw the St. Paul’s School Boys’ varsity team win at the Henley-on-Thames Regatta in England. Shortly afterward, he began to gather equipment that he later used when he co-founded the Hamilton club rowing team. During his sophomore year, he and several other students, including Chris Daniels ’85, began a campaign to gain the support of the College for the new club. Initially without any resources, they persuaded Colgate University to give them three obsolete boats and Syracuse University to allow them access to its rowing tanks, designed to help an oarsman/woman build upper-body strength.

Interest in the club grew quickly, and soon there were 85 men and women participants. In 1986, during his final spring semester on the Hill, David personally purchased from Northeastern University a 3-year-old, 8-man shell that he donated to the College.

Following graduation, David continued to share a common goal with others, including families of later teams, of constructing a boathouse on the former Erie Canal that was finally completed in 1995. The group then lobbied the College to grant the crew teams varsity status: they did in 1998.

David had also developed a passion for aviation, and, like crew, it predated his arrival on the Hill, thanks to a classmate at St. George’s who was a private pilot. Feeding his other interest in photography, David flew with his classmate and took pictures from the air. One earned him his high school’s photography prize at graduation. 

After Hamilton, David moved to New York City and, in the fall of 1986, took a job with Films, Inc., a film distribution company. The next year, he relocated to Memphis, Tenn., to work as a cotton broker/analyst until 1988. Throughout this period, he also trained to become a pilot, flying out of the Martha’s Vineyard airport when time allowed; he earned his pilot’s license in 1989. 

During the 1990s, he had a series of jobs in investments and insurance. He also worked in aviation sales and maintenance at Hanscom Field, near Boston. On the side, he was flying cargo to and from Presque Isle, Maine, accumulating flight hours as he did so.

At a birthday party in 1990, David met Nicole Ann Maytham. They were married on Sept. 18, 1993, in Chilmark, Mass., on Martha’s Vineyard and would have a daughter. 

By May 1994, he was working for Mutual Assets, a mutual fund company in Portsmouth, N.H. During 1995-96, he worked as an inside wholesaler for the Harder Group, a high-end construction company restoring historical houses in Cambridge, Mass., among other locations around Boston. He also earned two licenses in financial services and subsequently relocated to Northboro, Mass., to work as an insurance agent for Northwestern Mutual Life. 

In 2000, David changed course radically as he began training in Dallas as a commercial pilot. The following year, he began working for Delta Connection/Atlantic Southeast Airlines as a commercial pilot, principally in the role of first officer/co-pilot. He was based initially in Dallas-Fort Worth and subsequently in Atlanta.

He went to work for JetBlue at J.F.K. Airport in New York in 2007. While with the airline, David also served as secretary-treasurer of the JFK Pilots Association and as a member and secretary-treasurer of the Airline Pilots Association between 2014 and 2018. Much of his work for APA was devoted to the pilots’ retirement benefit program. His aviation career sadly ended in 2020 following his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

In tandem with his work as an aviator, David also kept his hand in the investment world. In 2005, he was a founding shareholder in Visible Assets, Inc., a wireless electronics company based in New Hampshire that he remained affiliated with until 2023. In 2018, he entered the Harvard Business Analytics Program, completing it in April 2020, the same year he became chairman of Octulumen Technologies.

By then, Pound Ridge, N.Y., had become home for David and his family. His first marriage ended years before, and David had married Melissa Ann King in New York City in January 2010. In Pound Ridge, he volunteered with the local fire department that named him “volunteer firefighter of the year” in 2002. Summers continued to be spent on Martha’s Vineyard.

David was a loyal Hamilton alumnus. In addition to supporting the crew teams, he contributed to the First Lieutenant Michael Cleary ’85 Scholarship, the Career Center, and the Hamilton Fund. For a time, he also played a role in recruiting applicants from the greater Boston area.

David M. Hornblower is survived by his wife, daughter, four brothers, including James Wainwright Hornblower ’86, and a sister.

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