David Ryder Witter is a retired businessman (wine merchant) living in Paris.

He grew up in Newington, Connecticut, and received his formal advanced education at

Clark University, Worcester, MA, AB, 1960-1964. Major, Geography (Honors work), Minor, Economics, and

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, Wharton Graduate School, MBA, 1964-1966, Major, Public Transportation and Public Utilities Management.

On leaving Philadelphia and Wharton he worked in

Washington DC, for AM Voorhees, Assoc, 1966-1970, as a public transportation consultant.

With a one-year hiatus serving in the District of Columbia Air National Guard as an officer, He moved in the same field to the

US Dept of Transportation, Urban Mass Transportation Administration, 1970-1978, as a program analyst. He worked as special assistant in the administration of the major Federal grant activity for cities throughout the country with bus and rail transportation systems. Subsequently, he designed and implemented a nationwide program providing grants through each state agency to assist non-profit associations provide transportation to services to elderly and handicapped persons.

David started tasting wine and spirits seriously during his period in Washington, DC. In the late 1970’s, he moved to coast of Maine and started a wine shop with his partner. The Blue Hill Tea & Tobacco Shop (called the Blue Hill Wine Shop after 1998) carried tea, coffee, cigars, pipe tobacco, in addition to wine, but wine was preeminent from the beginning. The shop was considered to have one of the most comprehensive selections of wine in Maine, with more than 1000 labels, 40 % each, French and US. In addition to the rigors of running the wine shop he was the wine consultant to the Blue Hill Inn, a Wine Spectator award-winning restaurant. In 1990, during the consultancy with the Inn, wine dinners were launched, pairing 8 courses and 5 wines, and serving as animator. This was before they became fashionable and ubiquitous. For several years he wrote a popular wine column, Wine Impressions, in the Bangor Daily News, the largest daily in Maine.

During this period in Maine, 1978-2002, he was a transportation planner for the regional planning commission, and planned, developed, and implemented the first public transportation system in this rural area. An outgrowth of this basic system is the highly regarded Island Explorer free bus service serving Mount Desert Island (Bar Harbor) and Acadia National Park, and it is being used as a prototype for other parks with similar transportation problems.

He was very active in community organizations in Blue Hill, as a guiding and continuing force at St Francis-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, and with the Blue Hill Concert Association which presented world-class chamber music concerts during the winter months. He was active in both organizations for more than 20 years.

The Wine Shop was sold in 2002, and he moved to Paris in September 2002. He started a small creative writing group which met on a weekly basis upon his arrival in Paris. He has continued his interest in wine and food, conducting seminars in wine tasting and appreciation for Anglophones. He also has assisted small to medium size restaurants in Paris with their wine lists.

26 avril 2005 Paris
rev. 9 juin 2009 Paris, 7 decembre 2009