David Grath

Grath, David 2/21/1937 - 3/2/2022 Northport, MI David Paul Grath, long-time resident of Kalamazoo and more recently of Leelanau County, passed away in Chandler, Arizona, on March 2, 2022, at the age of 85 from complications following surgery, his wife, Pamela, and daughter, Maiya, at his side. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Grath earned a B.A. in art from Eastern Michigan University and an M.A. in art from Michigan State University. After one year as a teacher in the Paw Paw schools, he joined the faculty of the art department of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. He later taught one year at the University of Arkansas before leaving academia to devote himself fulltime to painting and sculpture. Following years of residence in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Grath moved north in 1987 to make his fulltime home in Leelanau County, first in Leland, and later in Leelanau Township, where he maintained an art gallery and studio in Northport next door to his wife's bookstore on Waukazoo Street. He had many one-man shows over the years at the Old Art School Building in Leland, as well as being part of group shows in Chicago, Cincinnati, and the Republic of Georgia (formerly part of the U.S.S.R.) In 2017 the Dennos Museum Center in Traverse City mounted a partial retrospective of his work, "Three Decades of Landscape Painting by David Paul Grath." Beloved husband of Pamela Grath, David was preceded in death by his parents, Paul Grath and Doris Hahn Grath of St. Clair, Michigan. David was the father of three children: Carson Leftwich (Kirk) of Kalamazoo, MI; Adam Grath (Anne Thompson) of Bloomington, MN; Maiya Grath (Andrew Rose) of St. Paul, MN, all of whom survive. He is also survived by stepson Ian Schirado of Kalamazoo; grandchildren David Leftwich (Lyric), Chelsea Leftwich, Spencer Grath Willits, and Jackson Grath Willits, and great-grandchildren August and Henry Leftwich. His former wife and mother of his children, Donna Grath, also survives. David recently learned to know and love his cousin Jim Schmidt of Paradise Valley, AZ, who provided loving support to David during hospitalizations and to his to his family following David's death. Many friends too numerous to mention mourn his passing, while many others have gone before. Memorial gatherings will be held in June, both in Leland and in Kalamazoo, exact dates not yet determined. Memorial gifts may be directed to the Old Art School in Leland, the NAAC in Northport, and/or to the Dennos Museum Center at NMC in Traverse City. Besides his beautiful art, Grath leaves behind a legacy of love. He had an abiding gift for friendship and connection, a strong sense of the absurd and a ringing, infectious laugh. Since 2015, David and Pamela have spent winter months in Cochise County, Arizona, but from coffee shops in the Upper Peninsula or southern Arizona to a succession of art studios from Kalamazoo to Northport, and even in hospital rooms where he was a patient, wherever he was, spontaneous parties would break out as people were pulled into his orbit. A self-identifed "stone Pisces," he loved boats and water all his life and was also known as a "car guy," but his lifelong passion was for art. As a boy in Detroit, he often played hookey by spending a day at the Detroit Institute of Arts, and two trips to Paris left him only hungry for more: He felt very much at home there, among all the artists of the past.