David Jacob Kline, a gregarious raconteur, loyal friend and steadfast supporter of Jewish causes who never lost his Boston accent or his devotion to the Red Sox, died Sept. 1. He was 92.
Kline was born April 1, 1933, in Roxbury, Mass., to Samuel and Betty (Rudin) Kline, Jewish immigrants who owned Samuel Kline Jewelers in Boston. He grew up in a close-knit household with his older sister, Barbara Edith Goodof, who died in 2013. “When they were together, you could not get a word in edgewise amid all the laughter,” said his niece, Lori Calderone.
He graduated from Roxbury Memorial High School for Boys and earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Northeastern University in 1954 and a master’s in 1961. He remained a loyal donor to Northeastern’s business school throughout his life.
Kline served in the U.S. Navy from 1956 to 1957. After his service, he worked at Allied Research in Boston before moving to Washington, where he joined Federal Publications. There, he specialized in training related to procuring government contracts and later taught similar courses independently. “He knew the federal system really well,” Calderone said.
“He had a really interesting entrepreneurial drive and was a little bit of a risk taker.”
Alongside his salaried work, Kline pursued ventures in real estate and other small businesses. Calderone recalled that he “had some out-of-the-way or off-the-beaten-path ideas” and was always willing to try something new.
“He had this very entrepreneurial streak,” said his nephew, Robert Goodof. “He was always thinking about what could be done differently or better, and he had a strong network of people from different fields. He knew how to connect people to get things done.”
Kline moved to Washington more than 40 years ago and became a familiar presence at Adas Israel Congregation. He was known for showing up specifically to make sure there was a minyan. “He was very engaged and committed to his Judaism,” Calderone said.
Friends said that Kline’s Jewish identity showed through his actions as much as his attendance. “He didn’t talk about Judaism as much as he lived it,” said longtime friend Carolyn Fuchs. “Be good to your neighbor, be loyal to your people — he just did all of that.”
He learned that from his father, who once went door to door in their Roxbury neighborhood collecting money to help a struggling Irish Catholic family. “Even though he himself didn’t have money, he went out of his way to help everybody else,” said Kline’s friend Lisa Everhart. “I think David watched his father do things like that, and that’s part of what made him so generous.”
Everhart, a friend of about 40 years who later became his power of attorney, said Kline gave widely to Jewish organizations. “He gave to the Jewish National Fund, to rabbis in New York, to all kinds of organizations — you name it, he gave to it,” she said. For years, mail sent to him was forwarded to Everhart, who said the daily stream of solicitations testified to his giving. “He was on their mailing list, generous with both his time and his money,” she said.
That generosity extended beyond donations. Everhart recalled that he assisted a lawyer in pursuing a case on behalf of workers denied overtime pay. “If he thought someone was being taken advantage of, he was like Don Quixote,” she said. “He couldn’t stand seeing anyone treated unfairly.”
Fuchs described Kline as “an honorable, kind, smart, thoughtful man” who built deep friendships and stayed connected across decades. “He was tremendously loyal,” she said. “He was more religious than I am, and he lived by that — his thoughtfulness, his loyalty to people, his friends, his co-workers.”
Kline’s friendships often centered on his decades-long summer tradition of staying on Nantucket. For more than 40 years, he returned each year to the island with friends. “He loved people, and he loved Nantucket,” Calderone said.
Goodof said Kline’s friendships stretched back to his Northeastern days. “These were friends of his from college, which was 25 years before I knew him, and 25 years after that, the ones who were still alive, they were still friends,” he said. “He was the life of every party. He would argue, he would laugh and he was highly principled.”
Friends and family described Kline as warm, funny, talkative and opinionated. “Gregarious and a raconteur — that was David,” Calderone said. “He had lots of stories and knew lots of people.”
Everhart said he could be mercurial, quick to anger, but just as quick to let it go. “He was quick to laugh, but he was also quick to anger,” she said. “Once it came out, it was gone. He just moved on.”
His passion for the Boston Red Sox was well known among friends. A lifelong fan, he followed the team closely and remained devoted through the ups and downs. Whether in sports or in life, friends said, Kline approached what he loved with unwavering dedication.
Kline lived by Jewish values of loyalty and care for others. “He didn’t do it for attention,” Everhart said. “He did it because it was the right thing to do.”
Ellen Braunstein is a freelance writer.
