Deceased November 9, 2012
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50th Reunion Book Entry
In Memory
Dave spent only two years at Amherst, but kept in touch deep into old age attending reunions, posting class notes and socializing with alums. If such records existed, he could be the most-frequently-heard-from non-grad ever.
Again and again he told of watching satellite telecasts in Milwaukee pubs of Amherst-Williams football games and noting who was there with him. Like many of his generation, he wrote by hand.
“I am so faxing illiterate regarding electronic communication that I can’t even keep my cellular phone working right,” he said. “Besides, what is wrong with a quill and an inkwell?”
Dave was born in Evanston, IL, and prepped there for Amherst, where he joined Alpha Delta Phi. Leaving after his sophomore year, he got a BS from Northwestern in 1939 and served as a lieutenant (jg) in the Navy in WWII. A variegated business career followed in companies like Standard Oil and Montgomery Ward. He was a high officer of Wells Badger Industries in Milwaukee when he retired in 1981.
His life after retirement was one of joyous cruises and peregrinations with his wife, Peggy. They “bought a pad in Tucson and will be joining the sizeable Amherst contingent there each winter,” he wrote in 1996. “Believe it or not, I’ll still be able to do some skiing” in Wisconsin.
His notes stopped in 2002 and the next we heard was of his death on Nov. 12, 2012 in Bayside, WI, where he lived. He was 96 and Peggy, his wife since 1971, predeceased him. He left four sons and 12 grandchildren.
George Bria ’38