FALLS VILLAGE — David Charles Wilburn, 75, of Falls Village, died peacefully surrounded by his family on March 23, 2025, at Vassar Hospital, Poughkeepsie, New York.
David was born on Aug. 5, 1949, in Asheville, North Carolina. He grew up with his older brother, Randall Wilburn, and was raised by his father, Harold Charles Wilburn, and his mother, Marcene Hicks Wilburn. He was educated at Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda, Maryland, The University of Notre Dame du Lac in South Bend, Indiana, and St. John’s University School of Law in New York City, New York.
He began his career as an attorney at The Tennessee Valley Authority, where he met his wife, Sally Scott Wilburn. The two were married at First United Methodist Church in Jackson, Tennessee on Nov. 29, 1980. It was shortly after that David and Sally, two lifelong Southerners, both with families with the deepest of Southern roots extending back to the English and Scottish Colonies of the 1600s, made a lifelong change — they became permanent East Coasters. They moved to the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where David had a career in corporate and municipal finance, as Vice President at Kidder Peabody and UBS (then United Bank of Switzerland), and later as Managing Director at Paine Webber.
With plans for a family, in 1987 David and Sally bought a Queen Anne-style brownstone on Strong Place in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill neighborhood, which became the childhood home for their two sons, Alexander and Clayton, and their daughter, Katherine. Their three children were all born at New York University Hospital in Manhattan and christened at Grace Episcopal Church in Brooklyn. In 1998, David and his family moved full time to the second home where they had enjoyed so many summers and Christmases, a Colonial Revival house listed in the Register of Historic Homes of Sharon, Connecticut.
In the Northwest Corner of Connecticut, David was an active and eager community member, especially when it came to athletics. His efforts shaped Salisbury Youth Hockey into the program it is today, including naming the team the Redhawks and designing the original logo with his son, Alexander. He spent many frigid, early winter mornings with a hot coffee in hand, shuttling his two hockey players, Clayton and Katherine, to play in weekend games across New England through their grade school and high school years.
Beyond team sports, David was enthusiastic about giving his children a rich cultural education, whether through old films, photography and art exhibits, productions of Shakespeare and New York’s American Ballet Company — and of course, classic sci-fi, including “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.” He instilled a love of the outdoors in his children as well, and in fatherhood enjoyed downhill skiing, fishing, doubles tennis and scuba diving in the Caribbean. He loved to golf, a passion he inherited from his own father, and spent many early summer mornings on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, golfing with son, Clayton, his father-in-law, the late Dr. Barnett Scott, his brother-in-law, David Scott, and his nephew, Andrew Scott.
In 2007 David embarked on an unexpected venture and brought his love of the culinary arts to the public when he opened the New American-style restaurant Chives in Lakeville, Connecticut. Favorably reviewed in the New York Times in 2008, Patricia Brooks wrote, “The crisp, neat, fresh-looking little place is enlivened by water glasses in electric Giverny blue” and later complemented the “seared yellowfin tuna and soba noodles, baked Westfield goat cheese salad; asparagus risotto, crispy-skin Loch Duart salmon, pan-seared Maine diver scallops and house-made ice creams.” The tough-as-nails Lakeville Journal food critic Marsden Epworth even complimented the restaurant’s “magazine-cool presentation.”
David and Sally shared a love for home restoration, and the pair could be seen over the years working together as a team on interior renovations and decorating (they were both great fans of the late Mario Buatta), as well as spending their warmer days out among the many pastel peonies, dahlias and roses in their garden.
In the couple’s later years, they bought their shingle-style home in The Historic District of Main Street in Falls Village, Connecticut. David served as treasurer of the Falls Village Community Development Corp., and was elected to two terms on the Falls Village Board of Finance. Especially in his later life, David was a passionate progressive, who believed in economic, racial and housing equity, and that it was the role of the community to look out for those in need.
David is predeceased by his parents, Harold and Marcene Wilburn, his older brother, Randall Wilburn, as well as his departed buddy, the Wilburns’ chocolate Labrador retriever, Jasper, named after the artist Jasper Johns.
He is survived by his wife, Sally Scott Wilburn, and his three children, Charles Alexander Wilburn, Clayton Scott Wilburn, and Katherine Wilburn Lasacco. David was in attendance (and is remembered for his excellent speeches) as Clayton married Elizabeth Teitzel Wilburn in Nashville, Tennessee in 2018, and his daughter Katherine wed Jeremy Lassaco in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, in 2021. David became a grandfather for the first time upon the birth of Jeremy and Katherine’s baby girl, Scarlett Joan Lassaco, on April 19, 2023, and again on Oct. 1, 2024, upon the birth of Clayton and Elizabeth’s daughter, Sophie Madison Wilburn.
The Kenny Funeral Home has care of arrangements.
A private family service is planned for the spring.
In lieu of flowers please make a memorial donation to David’s cherished local library, the David M. Hunt Library, 63 Main St., Falls Village, CT 06031.
