David Donald Nuranen

HANCOCK – David Donald Nuranen, 72, a resident of Hancock, passed away on Tuesday, November 15, 2016, at the Lighthouse Health and Rehabilitation Center (formerly Cypress Manor) in Hancock, where he had been a patient for the past month.

Dave died of symptoms related to heart failure. In accordance with his wishes, a memorial service will be held during the summer when part of his ashes will be buried on the family plot at the Hancock cemetery.

Dave was the 11th of 14 children born to the late John Jacob and Elizabeth Ann “Bessie” (Waisanen) Nuranen of Conrad Street in Hancock.

An avid explorer and traveler of the U.S., Dave fell ill while traveling back to the Copper Country from Key West, Florida, where he had spent the winter in his 1986 Winnebago. He prepared the Winnebago meticulously as he approached all things – for what would be the last of his many journeys here on Earth.

Over the course of his life, Dave explored the country through a range of jobs, projects and literary pursuits. He was among the last generation of copper miners at Calumet and Hecla Mining Company in the late 1960s.

He worked as a short order cook and related jobs in Copper Harbor, which allowed him to explore the Keweenaw Peninsula and Manitou Island, where he restored a cabin in which he lived for several summers in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

When not on Manitou Island, Dave was refurbishing a log cabin on Cliff View Drive, where he entertained, studied, carved, admired nature and wrote poetry. The picture of Dave for this obituary was taken in his log cabin in the early 70s.

From the Copper Country, Dave’s travels took him to Chicago, San Francisco, New Orleans, Washington D.C., the Grand Canyon, and Flagstaff, Arizona, among other places.

In each of these areas, he held an interesting array of jobs and pursued his longstanding study of Shakespeare’s work and its relationship to various aspects of Western culture, including religion, astronomy, and the human struggle for freedom and dignity.

His jobs included working on an oil rig in New Orleans, serving as a mail courier in Washington D.C., and tourist guide at the Grand Canyon.

For more than a decade, Dave lived near the Shakespeare Folger Library in Washington, D.C., which holds the largest collection of scholarly work on Shakespeare. It was there that he made a number of original insights into Shakespeare’s work, including its many connections to the King James Version of the Bible.

Although much of that research was left unpublished, Dave completed a highly original piece of Shakespearean scholarship that was published in an academic journal in 2004, Journal of the Wooden O Symposium, Vol. 4, p. 116.

His article, titled Shakespeare’s Comets, shows that each time a comet is referenced in one of Shakespeare’s plays, a comet was visible in the skies of London. Allusions to the comets, he argued, help to more clearly determine the publication dates of the plays. The plays are I Henry VI, The Taming of the Shrew, I Henry IV and Pericles. The allusion in Pericles is likely to Halley’s Comet, which was visible in the London sky in September and October of 1607.

Following the publication of his article, Dave presented it through a reading at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City. It should be noted that among the authors in the journal and presenters at the conference, Dave was the only one without an advanced degree.

He graduated from Hancock High School in 1962 and had no other formal education. His accomplishments are a testament not only to his creativity and intellect, but also to his determination to live life as fully as possible on his own terms, a trait for which he was known throughout his life.

In his later years, Dave turned his literary attention to writing haiku, a Japanese form of poetry. He used these short, typically three-line poems, to capture the mysteries and everydayness of nature in the simplest terms possible.

Here is an example of one that captures his fascination with the heavens, clear winter night, out of the milky way, a star falls. And one from a prior hunting season, wet ground, deer tracks across a grave, far off gunshots. And, finally, as we look toward winter, setting sun, icicles, filled with fire. And then spring, the new grass, and already a path, to somewhere.

Dave is survived by his sisters, Ruth (the late Wes) Kangas, Sarah (John) Wilcox and Gloria Jerabek; and by his brother, Robert Nuranen.

In addition to his parents; he was preceded in death by his sisters, Rose (the late Albert) Laitinen, Joyce (the late Arvid) Nakkula, and Sandra “Sandy” Ruscio; and by his brothers, John, Calvin, Paul, Fred, James and Michael.

Although Dave had no biological children, he was a true inspiration to a host of nieces and nephews, teaching them to play chess, love music and classic movies and to be forever curious about the world.

While at the Grand Canyon he even conducted the outdoor wedding ceremony of his nephew, Jason Ruscio and his wife, Petra (Wright).

Dave was pleased to have lived just long enough to see his musical inspiration, Bob Dylan, win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Given Dave’s love of astronomy, it seems fitting to close this review of his life with a favorite Dylan line, “Seen a shootin’ star tonight and I thought of youÃ-“

To view David’s obituary or to send condolences to the family, please visit memorialchapel.net

The Memorial Chapel & Plowe Funeral Homes of Hancock have been assisting the family with the arrangements.