David A. Hulley

David Aitken Hulley of Northampton, born 30 March 1945 in Rockville Centre, NY, to Horace and Dorothy Hulley, died 18 October 2023 in Cooley Dickinson Hospital (having received two weeks of professional and tender care), of complications related to Parkinson’s Disease and other chronic health issues, which he bore for many years with grace and bravery. David and his wife Anne Hulley moved to Northampton from Somerville in July 1976 to open Logos Bookstore here, where with warmth and expertise he welcomed and assisted people for three years, before selling the store to dear friends to take a related job elsewhere. But they missed and loved Northampton and returned five years later to settle in a house where there are sidewalks, and proximity to, for example, books and ice cream- with views of mountains and corn fields short bike rides away. David was recognized by local restauranteurs as he took his children out to breakfast every Saturday morning, and had Sunday night dinner dates with Anne, most often at India House.
In early childhood he lost each of his parents, and was raised by his Scottish grandparents. Sadness or bitterness could have been what marked him, but instead compassion, generosity, and subtle humor describe him. One turning point was noticing his high school lab partner, and discovering that what made him special was following Jesus, which culminated in David’s own metanoia. When he, Anne, and three of their five children began traveling to Russia in 1996 to a children’s camp near the Finnish border, while she taught printmaking he was assigned by the camp to a group of teenage orphans, who when they learned his story (“you could have heard a pin drop,” said a counsellor), counted him as one of them. This time was transformative, and led to the adoption of two more daughters, 13 and 15, and the founding of the non-profit Stoneworks International as a conduit for aid, volunteers, and good news. Its presence now stretches beyond St Petersburg to other countries. David studied Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, Theology, and Business and had a wide variety of careers. Besides riding his bicycle here and elsewhere on short and longer trips, he loved watching and playing basketball, welcoming and feeding Smith students from nearby and around the world- especially during Advent, for feasting, candles, and singing, and any time he could have with his children and grandchildren.
Besides Anne, he leaves the rest of his dearly loved family- seven daughters and sons and their families, including twelve grandbabies: Emily, Mark, and Benjamin Keating; Nathan, Hortense, Hannah, Alexander, Isabel, and Victoria Hulley; Elizabeth Sukhovskaya, Andrei and David Sukhovskii, and Sonya Sukhovskaya; Timothy and Samantha Hulley; James, Emily, Harper, and Hudson Hulley; Mariya Hulley, and Kylie and Colten Jensen; and Anastasia and Angelica Sandoval. He is also survived by his sister Joan Lent and his nieces Jenny Campi, Christine Allen, and Valerie Adair and their families, and nephew Steven Lent; and Anne’s family including her mother, Patricia Smith, her sister Mimi Naunheim and her family, and her brother Robert Becker.
Gifts in his honor would be greatly welcomed by the International Language Institute, Northampton; Stoneworks International c/o College Church, Northampton; Young Life Hampshire County, c/o College Church, Northampton.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday 11 November at 3 pm at College Church, 58 Pomeroy Terrace, Northampton, Massachusetts.
Please send flowers directly to Church.