Dave Nealy worked on several of the longer and more difficult-to-read French records found in the 1796 – 1834 Wilmington – Coffee Run Register of sacrament records for the early Catholic Church in Delaware. The complete set of translations is found in the Historical Feature section of our web site.
Dave earned his undergraduate degree from Duke University and received his Ph. D. from Cornell University. He merited a Fulbright Scholarship to attend the Faculté des Sciences in Marseille, France. He was a chemist for Eastman Kodak for twenty-seven years.
While active as a community volunteer, he learned Haitian Creole by teaching Haitian refugees English and interpreting for them in Roanoke, Virginia and in Haiti. "Knowing French," he observed, "made it easier."
Dave hopes to make his 12th trip to Haiti in 2004. Previous trips to Haiti were with Presbyterian missionaries and the Lambi Fund to help farmers increase their productivity. He has also served as interpreter, an election observer, a work team member, and a project inspector for donors in the United States.