Remembering "Coach Dave": A Life of Grit, Service, & Rugby

David Allen Carpenter, 74, passed peacefully on Feb. 12, 2026, after a seven-year battle with Lewy Body dementia. In his final days, he was surrounded at home by laughter, love and family.

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‍Please join friends and family for David’s Celebration of life March 11th 12-3pm at the Center for Urban Horticulture.

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‍“Coach Dave” as we called him at UW in the early 2020’s, brought a traditional “grit” in his coaching style. A quality in many great coaches is good balance between toughness, and a sense of care for players’ well-being. Dave brought both: an occasional rant followed by a big smile and a twinkle in his eye. He couldn’t be kept away from rugby, hence reigniting his coaching career at age 68 and sticking with it through the early days of his diagnosis. Clearly frustrated by his health restrictions, he adamantly rode his bike to training after losing his driver’s license. Dave was a stalwart of the UW rugby community, coaching here 10 years which spanned from 1985-2022. He was loved by the players, and he will be deeply missed by Seattle's greater rugby community.

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Dave was born Jan. 26, 1952, in Seattle, WA, to Mary and Lloyd Carpenter. A proud graduate of O'Dea High School, class of 1970, he made many lifelong friends there. During the Vietnam War, the Navy placed him on the aircraft carrier USS America, which was luckily dispatched to the Mediterranean.

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There he developed his love of travel. Together with his wife, Tina, family and friends, he went to almost all the continents, collecting memories and T-shirts from around the world. Dave especially loved the Mediterranean, and requested that his family scatter his ashes there. Dave was a gifted athlete with speed, grace, a competitive nature and a hot temper. He played basketball, soccer, volleyball, croquet and card games, but above all, loved rugby. He played for the Tallahassee Rugby Club (1977) and Old Puget Sound Beach (OPSB) in Seattle. He was selected for teams that represented the Pacific Northwest (Loggers), the Pacific Coast (Grizziles), and a national team (Cougars).

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Awards were plenty, but he was most proud of OPSB's three National 7s championships and the OPSB President's Award for his outstanding contribution to the future and spirit of rugby. Besides coaching his children's basketball and baseball teams, he was also an accomplished rugby coach to the women's Breakers team, University of Washington men's team (1985-1992), assistant coach for Western Washington University team and then again at UW as recently as 2020.

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Dave spent his career with the Army Corps of Engineers at the Hiram M. Chittenden (Ballard) Locks as lockmaster, navigation supervisor, and the Olympic Peninsula flood response team. His work ethic was beyond compare. Check out his memorial fish plaque near the fish ladder.

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Family was everything to Dave. A loving husband to Tina, father to Max (Lillian), Eevee and Sam; his siblings, Margaret (Ron), Michael (Kathy), Steve, Catherine, JoAnn; and Tina's siblings Jim (Mimi), Doris, Eddy (Suzanne); his nieces and nephews, and friends who grew to be family.

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Thank you to all the "family" who supported him throughout his life and the difficult years after his diagnosis in 2019.