David Ibry

David Ibry (1926 – 2017) was born in Haifa, then in Palestine, on 26 August. After his parents’ divorce and his father’s subsequent death, he moved to Milan and remained in Italy for the rest of his childhood. In later life, he worked as a manager for the typewriter firm Olivetti, as an export manager, and as a humanist funeral celebrant. In 1999, he published an anthology entitled Exodus to Humanism – Identity without Religion which detailed the journeys of 26 Jewish people from Judaism to humanism. He married his first wife Isabella in 1954 and they remained married until her tragic death in a car crash along with their only child Benjamin in 1964. He then married second wife Rosalba and they had two children, Helen and Benjamin, before separating. From 1984, he spent the rest of his life with partner Cynthia.

Celebrant and tribute contributor: Felicity Harvest.