Lasting Memories

David Paul Tinsley
Oct. 29, 1968-May 15, 2009
Redwood City, California

David Paul Tinsley, who was born and raised in Menlo Park and graduated from Menlo-Atherton High School in 1987, died May 25 with his wife by his side, after a three-year battle with lung cancer. He was 40.

Mr. Tinsley, who most recently lived in Redwood City, was born October 29, 1968, at Stanford hospital and lived most of his life in the Bay Area. In June 1998, he married Daisy Martin.

"Whether caring for his family, entertaining or helping out friends, or researching cures for cancer and other diseases through his academic and professional years, David had the rare gift of always putting others before himself," said his mother, Carol Tinsley of Menlo Park. "David possessed a quick wit, the ability to put anyone at ease, and enjoyed the simple pleasures of life: traveling, sports, music, and spending time with friends and family."

Football was a passion. He played for the Menlo-Atherton Bears and the Mountain View Flyers, and was a fan of the 49ers in good times and bad. His love of golf was formed early as he and his brothers would traipse along the fairways of the Stanford University Golf Course near their childhood home collecting errant balls. He played that course dozens of times along with hundreds of others across the country, family members said.

Music was a powerful force in his life. He played drums with numerous bands and would never shy away from a chance to sit in on a set or two. Peninsula residents will remember him as laying down the beat behind Knick Knack Jones over the last five years.

After graduating from M-A, where, in addition to football, he participated in Junior ROTC, he moved to Southern California to attend the University of California, Los Angeles, where he earned a bachelor's degree in psychobiology.

After three years working in biotechnology, he returned to academia, earning a master's degree in biochemistry from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.

In addition to postgraduate research into the causes of cancer at Keck, David spent more than five years working for Renovis, a South San Francisco biotechnology company that just shut down in May. He researched and developed medicines for pain and inflammatory diseases.

Mr. Tinsley is survived by his wife of 11 years, Daisy; three children, Carl, Will and Sarah; mother and father, Carol and Carlos Tinsley of Menlo Park; brothers, Randy, Ron and Ken; and 12 nieces and nephews.