David Rathbun

David Leigh Rathbun died on April 9, 2020. He leaves behind his wife, Terri Lynn Shanahan, his former wife, Susan Fox, mother of his son, Nigel Rathbun. David is predeceased by his parents, Josephine Irene Rathbun, and Harlan E. Rathbun, his niece Tamara Rathbun, sister-in-law Kimberly Ann Shanahan, and his grandson, Haidin Shanahan.

He is also survived by family in Denver: his brother, Ronald Rathbun and his wife Barbara, his nephew Daniel Rathbun, his partner Kelly, and their daughter Ashley.

He is survived by his stepson, Michael Shanahan, his brother-in-law, Joseph Shanahan, his nephew Ian Elaijah Shanahan, and his parents-in-law, Pam and Bill Manus.

David raised three good men, Nigel Rathbun, Michael Shanahan, and Ian Shanahan. He was very proud of all three of them.

David adored his grandchildren, Andrew Rathbun, his wife Becky Rathbun, Jacob Shanahan-Galinis, Cheyenne Leigh Rathbun, Dakota Skye Rose Rathbun, Zachariah David Shanahan, Jacob Bell, Noah Harlan Rathbun, Miles Shanahan, and Marley Shanahan. He adored his great-grandson, Zachary Rathbun.

David Rathbun was born in Denver, Colorado in 1943. He grew up in the suburbs west of Denver with the Colorado Rocky Mountains as his back yard. In 1965 he graduated with a BA degree in Literature from Wheaton College (Illinois) where he discovered the efficacy of a strong liberal arts education. After graduate study in Philosophy and Theology at Princeton, and curriculum theory at Columbia University, he participated in the development of the Street Academy program in Harlem under the aegis of the NYC Urban League. His interest in photography and in education converged in the Street Academy where he taught literature and encouraged students to make visual responses through photography.

A chance encounter with the book In Wildness Is The Preservation Of The World, the 1962 book of Eliot Porter's color photographs published under the aegis of the Sierra Club, made Rathbun aware of the expressive possibilities inherent in color photography and made clear that the arena of color was where his photography was headed. For the next several years, Rathbun photographed for commercial clients in NYC, and paid careful attention to the growing list of books by Porter.

A fortuitous encounter with Eliot Porter in a color lab in NYC when Porter was en route to begin work on what would become his Africa book, provided a seminal turning point in Rathbun's development as a photographer. Upon Porter's return from Africa, he invited Rathbun to move to Santa Fe, New Mexico in order to embark on a five-year, full time apprenticeship. From 1971 through 1975, Rathbun worked with Porter, and photographed extensively in the southwestern states. During this time he also mastered the Dye Transfer printing process, and served as Porter's printer. During this period, John Szarkowski, curator of photography at MOMA in NYC, selected the photographs for exhibition in the 1974 Southwest Biennial in Santa Fe. One of Rathbun's images was one of only two color photographs included in the exhibit. In 1975, at the urging of photo historian Beaumont Newhall, Arthur Siegel invited Rathbun to begin teaching and to develop a program in color photography at the Institute of Design in Chicago.rom 1975 through 1981, Rathbun taught color at both the undergraduate and graduate levels at ID during the period when color photography moved to the center of expressive photographic image making nationally. Rathbun was the first color photographer taken on by Douglas Kenyon Gallery in Chicago in 1975.

In 1981, David Rathbun accepted an offer to initiate a liberal arts photography major in then William James College of Grand Valley State Colleges. Since 1981 he has taught in the photography major that has become distinctive as a liberal arts program and that challenged and rewarded him as a scholar, a photographer, and an educator. Now in its 39th year, the photography major at GV has proven successful in preparing educated photographic image makers and has demonstrated the efficacy of Rathbun's model for an approach to visual communication that is integrated with liberal education and focused on the discourse of the photographic image.

While teaching at Grand Valley State University, David was an active member of the faculty senate, and the Chair of the University Curriculum committee for over a decade, for which he was awarded the Outstanding University Service Award in 2002.

David was a consultant to the Jacob K. Javits Foundation and U.S. Department of Education for the Javits Graduate Fellowship Program, where he also served for several years as the Chair of the Arts Division. He curated and juried numerous exhibitions in the region. Upon retirement, David was promoted to Professor Emeritus at GVSU.

Rathbun continued to photograph about color and vision, and the nature of looking when color defines the significance of the visual experience. His images are not intended to show what things look like, rather to prompt awareness of what it is like to look when color is given a nominal role in constructing meaning.

In addition, any understanding of David Rathbun must acknowledge his passion for sailing that has matured over nearly half a century, including a trans-Atlantic crossing from Florida to Ireland with two friends in a 29' yawl that involved 42 days at sea. He lived and sailed out of Saugatuck, Michigan, in his Pearson ketch. He served as a President of the Sailing Program for two years, and was an officer of the Board of Directors of the Saugatuck Yacht Club Sailing Program, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of Saugatuck Yacht Club.

David was greatly loved and will be dearly missed. Thank you for sharing your memories and messages to David's family, some posts will remain private.