David Richard Satava

David Richard Satava, an accounting professor at the University of Houston-Victoria for 14 years, died Friday. He was 58 years old.

“We are saddened by the news of David’s passing,” said Farhang Niroomand, dean of the UHV School of Business Administration. “The School of Business Administration has lost a fine colleague and a dear friend. We will miss him greatly.”

A memorial service is set for 11 a.m. Friday at Grace Funeral Home, 2401 Houston Hwy.

Satava began teaching accounting at UHV on Sept. 1, 1995. He established an accounting ethics course at the university and was certified by the state to teach it. The course is a requirement before students can take the test to obtain their Certified Public Accountant license.  Satava also served on numerous committees throughout his time at UHV and was the sponsor of the UHV chapter of Gamma Beta Phi national honor society.

Robin Cadle, UHV director of stewardship and planned giving, took Strategic Cost Management from Satava in the fall of 2004 while she was working on her Master of Business Administration. She also knew him from his involvement with the UHV Giving Tree and the Salvation Army Angel Tree at Christmas.

“He was so excited one year about buying a dinosaur for a child who wanted one for Christmas,” she said. “He was a caring man who took an interest in his students at UHV and the less fortunate children in the community.”

Massoud Metghalchi, chairman of the Accounting, Economics, Finance and Quantitative Management Science Department, said he worked with Satava for 14 years and was impressed with his teaching ability.

“He really loved education,” he said. “He loved teaching his students accounting, and he would use any trick to make accounting interesting to them.”

Satava was teaching three online classes this semester. Other UHV faculty members are taking over teaching Financial Statement Analysis, Contemporary Issues in Accounting, and Seminar in Accounting Ethics, Metghalchi said.

Satava was born in San Francisco on May 1, 1951, to Louise (Camale) Archambault and Marvin Satava. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay area.

On Oct. 7, 1973, he married Susan Brown, to whom he was married for 36 years. Susan said he will be missed.

“If I was his princess, he was my knight in shining armor,” she said.

The couple has a son, Pfc. Steven Spencer Satava, of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. He will be serving his country as a cable installer and maintainer on active duty.

David Satava received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from San Francisco State University. In 1994, he obtained his Doctor of Business Administration from Mississippi State University. He was completing a second master’s degree in religion from Baptist Missionary Association Theological Seminary in Jacksonville.

Satava is survived by his wife, Susan; his son, Steven; his mother, Louise Gibbons; a brother, Richard; sisters Linda Burrows and her husband, Steve, Donna Chamberlain and her husband, James, and Hazel Wayman and her husband, Al; and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his father, Marvin Satava.

The faculty and staff of the School of Business Administration have established the Dr. David Satava Memorial Accounting Scholarship at UHV. Those who wish to contribute can contact Cadle at 361-570-4120, 361-655-1607 or cadler@uhv.edu.

Memorial donations also may be made to Court Appointed Special Advocates, KHCB radio station, the Salvation Army, Christ’s Kitchen, Baptist Missionary Association Seminary and Plain Truth Ministries (PTM/Grace Communion International).