Beloved analyst was always drawn to the natural world, especially birds, and Mount Philo was his sacred place David C. Hamilton of South Burlington, Vt., died unexpectedly on Monday, January 20, 2025, while hiking on Mount Philo, his most sacred of places. Born in Columbus, Ohio, on February 1, 1954, to Jack and Sheila Hamilton and his two-year-old brother Mike, (now far older), David spent most of his childhood in Southington, Conn., where he grew up during the 1960s with music all around. His early love of Southern rock and blues (read: the Allman Brothers) never left him but evolved into his own beautiful guitar composing and ultimately into a passion for Pat Metheny, Aaron Parks, Dead Can Dance, Steely Dan, Miles Davis and so many more. After a stint at Saint Michael’s College in Vermont, David decided to enter the working world. Many old-time Burlingtonians will remember him from the first gas station Ben and Jerry’s, Deja Vu, the Daily Planet, the Black Rose in Winooski and Rock Point School, where he evolved from dorm parent to dean of students. While at Rock Point, he went back to school at the University of Vermont and earned a BA in English. He then attended Antioch New England, earning a master’s in psychology; there was an academic in there, after all. David was always drawn to the natural world, especially birds. His homes and dreams were filled with their images, particularly herons and, more recently, owls. During his return to college, David became interested in dreams, their interpretations and messages. While at Antioch, he dove into Carl G. Jung and dream analysis. He longed to explore the world of the unconscious more deeply and applied to the Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. Making the decision to leave family and friends was not easy, but after dreaming he was flying over Europe on a heron’s back, he found the strength to make the leap of faith and move to Zurich, which would become a place of great significance for him. David returned to the states in 1998 with a PhD in Jungian psychology and his then-wife, Elena Lazo, to have their first child, Adam. They moved to the shores of Maine, where David started his practice, and six years later had their daughter, Mircea. Adam and Mircea were always the true loves of his life and the subjects for exuberant stories of their lives, their talents and their sensibilities. His relationship with Mircea was one marked with laughter, chatter,…