David Neil Geier

November 3, 1963 - March 22, 2021

David Neil Geier died in his home surrounded by family on Monday, March 22, 2021, in Greensboro, North Carolina. Dave passed at the age of 57 after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. He is survived by his wife Tammie, his children Samuel, Elizabeth, and Noah, his step-children Johanna and Peter Neuschwander, and his sister Jill Geier. Dave was born to Ruth and Sy Geier in 1963 in Mt. Vernon, New York. He spent his childhood in Hollywood, Florida. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1985 where he was a brother in the ZBT fraternity, and graduated with honors from the University of Florida School of Law in 1988. In 1989 he earned his Master of Laws in Taxation, also from the University of Florida. In 1989, Dave started his career in the Department of Justice through the Attorney General’s Honors Program, working in the Tax Division’s Southern Trial Section. After a distinguished decade, Dave left the Department in 2000 to join the Washington D.C. law firm of Schwalb, Donnenfeld & Schwalb. Dave was successful in private practice, but public service was his true calling and he returned to the Justice Department’s Tax Division, Western Trial Section, in 2005. He worked on some of the most complex and significant tax cases ever handled by the Division. It was a logical progression that Dave would become a manager in the Tax Division. He had a deep well of empathy for the struggles of line attorneys handling high-pressure litigation. But he also brought an infectious enthusiasm to his job, teaching many young lawyers that litigation (especially trial work) was not just intellectually challenging, but that it could be fun. Dave was an ebullient force who had a lifelong passion for mentorship—he began mentoring youth while he was still in high school and went on to be a prolific and proud mentor to countless young lawyers. Dave was a natural leader. In 2018, Dave brought his considerable expertise to a new role as senior attorney for the Office of Chief Counsel, IRS, in Greensboro. As proud as Dave was of his career, it didn’t hold a candle to the pride he took in his family, and especially in his children and stepchildren. In 2001, Dave married the love of his life, Tammie, in Potomac, Maryland. In 2016, Dave, Tammie and their children Sam, Liz, and Noah relocated from Potomac to Greensboro, North Carolina to pursue a fuller life. They found a new home in the Temple Emanuel community, where they became active members and, Dave liked to joke, “full time Jews.” Dave’s sarcasm was iconic to all who knew him. His family, friends, and colleagues remember him for doing nothing half-way. He approached every task with curiosity and every conversation with full-bodied animation. But most of all, he didn’t love half-way—his love was both ferocious and tender, rich in sacrifice, encircling all in his midst. Memorial gifts may be directed to the David Geier Teen Advocacy Fund via Temple Emanuel in Greensboro, North Carolina. The fund supports scholarships for high school students to participate in L’Taken, a program that brings Jewish youth to Washington, D.C., to lobby and advocate on social justice issues.